Sport

Nearly man Furyk finally graduates with honours

As the golf shrink says, "golf is not a game of perfect," but it is a game of "ifs" - as Padraig Harrington discovered in the…

Mon Jun 16 2003 - 01:00

As the golf shrink says, "golf is not a game of perfect," but it is a game of "ifs" - as Padraig Harrington discovered in the final round of the US Open at Olympia Fields yesterday.  Philip Reid  reports from Olympia Fields

Despite struggling with his putter, Europe's number one player launched a late charge - shooting a final round 68 - that didn't quite put the fear of god into eventual winner Jim Furyk, yet did manage to propel the Irishman into an unlikely top-10 finish.

Furyk fired a final round 72 for an eight-under-par winning total of 272, three shots clear of his closest pursuer Stephen Leaney.

With the course south of Chicago finally drying out sufficiently to bare its teeth, Harrington - who had three top-10 finishes in majors last season - showed that the tougher the conditions, the better he is likely to respond.

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Starting the day in tied-39th position, the Dubliner was one of only three players to shoot a sub-par final round that leapfrogged him over 29 players into a tied-10th finish.

If only his putter, usually so obedient, had been more faithful over the four days. One of the best putters in world golf, Harrington only ranked 44th in putting statistics at the US Open, and that proved to be his real achilles heel in the quest for major glory.

Harrington believed that his experiment of playing in the US for the two weeks before US Open had left him more drained than he would have liked. He explained: "I've been overworking on my game this past couple of months and that was evident because I felt fatigue. When you're not as sharp as you should be on the greens, that's a sure sign that you are tired. I struggled to read the greens.

"I simply didn't putt well enough this week but I'm getting better, know where I am going, and leave here in a very positive state of mind. I'm happy to have shot 68, but disappointed it wasn't a 67," said Harrington, who actually bogeyed the last hole after driving into a fairway bunker.

Furyk made no mistake, however, in impressively securing his first major title. In so doing, he succeeded Tiger Woods as US Open champion after the favourite finished on three over par 283.