Philip Reidreviews the drama of the Dubliner's victories in the British Open and the US PGA Championships

IN A year of years for Pádraig Harrington, the greatest insight into the man came in defeat, not in victory. On a Sunday evening at Augusta National in April, with a fifth-place finish in the US Masters for comfort, there was no sense of achievement as the Dubliner reflected on the recent past and looked into the crystal ball that held his future. Yet, even he, at that moment, couldn't have comprehended what lay in store for the rest of the season.

That evening, when South Africa's Trevor Immelman acquired a green jacket in the season's first major, Harrington stood at the back of the 18th green and had that faraway look that sometimes inveigles a way into his visage. Physically, he was there; but his mind was elsewhere. His eyes danced everywhere.

"I feel like I'm walking away from here saying, 'yeah, there's nothing in my golf swing that needs to be worked on if I'm to win more majors'. It's all there. It's just a question of getting the best out of me in the weeks of the majors . . . I need to concentrate on my strengths and my ability and the fact that I am good down the stretch."

Psychic, or what?

True, such observations weren't to be borne out at Torrey Pines in June, when Tiger Woods, on one good knee, claimed his 14th major title, defeating Rocco Mediate in a play-off.

But come July, in the British Open at Royal Birkdale on the Lancashire coast, and then the US PGA championship at Oakland Hills just north of Detroit in August, one man ruled the kingdom vacated by Woods, whose knee injury forced him to put his clubs away for the season's final two majors.

In July, Harrington, a garda's son from the foothills of the Dublin mountains, retained the Claret Jug he had won at Carnoustie 12 months previously with as authoritative a back-nine at Birkdale as anyone has produced in the final round of the oldest major. Then, for good measure, he took his game to new heights - dare we say, almost Tigeresque - with a magnificent victory in the US PGA the following month.

On the morning after his win in the 90th US PGA, where he had overhauled Ben Curtis and Sergio Garcia down the stretch, Harrington conducted a hastily arranged meeting with a number of Irish pressmen in the back garden of his rented house on Indian Mound West in the township of Bloomfield. Dressed in Hollister tee-shirt and shorts, and a million miles removed from the hard-edged golfer who'd shown no mercy to his rivals down the back nine, he was like a player waiting to wake up from the dream.

The Wanamaker Trophy and the Claret Jug sat side by side on a table, his then-eight-month-old son, Ciarán, sat on his knee, and the "scary eyes", as he described the intensity of his stare during the final holes of winning his third career major and back-to-back in this season of seasons, had been replaced by ones that danced to his own tune.

This was the Harrington who had just ensured legendary status not just in Ireland, but on the world stage.

As he put it, "having won three majors, in the modern era, and the players I compare myself to and the majors they have won, I have to start accepting I am who I am. I've probably been the best player in Europe for six years but, over that time, I haven't really shouted it from the treetops. Now, I've got to get to grips with who I am as a player, and where I am.

"I've won as many majors now as Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh. And they are considered that next tier behind Tiger. I'm the youngest of the three of them, and that says a lot. I'm the youngest and I have three majors. I feel like my game is going from strength to strength."

Yet, the build-up to his British Open triumph at Royal Birkdale in July had been anything but normal. For a player who prepares like an auditor going through due diligence, his preparations for the defence of the Claret Jug were hindered by a wrist injury suffered on the previous Saturday evening when, just hours after retaining his Irish PGA title at The European Club, he felt the need to work further on his swing in the confines of his home gym.

There, while hitting an impact bag akin to a giant beanbag, an exercise he had done for years without adverse reaction, Harrington sustained the wrist injury that left him unable to even hold a club on the Sunday and limited his pre-tournament preparations to walking the course and occasionally playing chips and putts around the greens.

He also received intensive treatment from his sports chiropractor, Dale Richardson, who availed of equipment generously supplied by Phil Mickelson.

It worked. Not only did Harrington make it to the first tee on the Thursday, a horrible morning with a cold wind blowing and rain lashing across the practice ground where he took his first tentative swings, but the reigning champion's opening round of 74 - five shots behind leaders Graeme McDowell, Rocco Mediate and Robert Allenby - hardly suggested the Claret Jug would once again return across the Irish Sea to nestle on his breakfast table at home in Rathmichael.

What followed for Harrington were rounds of 68 and 72 (on a third day when the average score was 75.8) that moved him into a share of second place with KJ Choi going into the final round.

The surprise leader? Greg Norman, the 53-year-old Australian, who defied his age and lack of competitive tournament play to roll back the years and dare to dream of another British Open title.

It was not to be, of course. Norman was forced to settle for a share of third place alongside Henrik Stenson, two shots behind the runner-up, Ian Poulter, and six adrift of Harrington.

On that Sunday in July amidst the Lancashire sandhills, Harrington was a giant among men.

For the first time since James Braid in 1906, a European golfer had successfully defended the British Open, and it was the first time in 80 years consecutive champions had won back-to-back, Bobby Jones (1926-1927) and Walter Hagen (1928-1929) linking with Tiger Woods (2005-2006) and Harrington (2007-2008). August company, to be sure.

Having stalked the leaders for the first three rounds, Harrington pounced in the final round.

Norman, who started with a run of bogey-bogey-bogey to fall back into a share of the lead with Harrington, eventually finished with a 77. Poulter, who finished with a 69 for 287, emerged as the greatest danger to Harrington and even ventured onto the practice range to hit warm-up shots in case there would be a need for a four-hole play-off. There wasn't.

Harrington effectively secured a successful retention of the title with a magnificent eagle on the par-five 17th, where he hit a five-wood approach from 249 yards to three feet. He coolly and calmly rolled in the eagle putt, and could - along with his caddie, Ronan Flood - enjoy the walk of a champion up the 18th fairway, safe in the knowledge he had a four-shot lead.

Harrington covered the back nine in four under.

"The way he finished, a true champion finishes that way," opined Norman.

As for Harrington, it was a moment to enjoy, but also to anticipate. "My goal is to keep getting into contention in the majors, to keep hanging around. The majors are what it is all about for me," he observed. He was to prove true to his word.

Within three weeks, Harrington discovered what life in the majors is like for Woods. To win back-to-back majors is a feat only the truly great players get to experience, and Harrington's victory in the US PGA, with a hugely impressive performance down the stretch in the final round, elevated him to a new level among past and present champions.

As Ben Curtis, who finished tied-second with Garcia two strokes behind Harrington, put it: "That was Tiger-like. I wouldn't say, 'Watch out, Jack,' but Pádraig is playing pretty impressive golf. He knows how to win, and he's not afraid to win. That's what it takes."

Harrington had completed his third round in the weather-hampered championship on Sunday, fashioning a 66, and he repeated the feat in the final round with another 66.

Impressively, he single-putted the final three greens in the final round, his par save on the 18th the stuff of true champions.

On that 72nd hole, Harrington made an incredible par to ensure the Wanamaker Trophy - one that has the most famous names in golf etched on it - would be his.

Having driven into a fairway bunker, he saw his sand shot travel barely 25 yards and come to rest in a clump of heavy rough. With 143 yards to the flag, he hit a seven-iron approach to the elevated green and then sank a 15-footer for par that left the watching Garcia - who was to miss his par putt - shell-shocked.

One of the most impressive features of Harrington's Oakland Hills win was his ability to make things happen down the stretch. Basically, doing a Tiger on the major.

"I've always had the ability to hole putts, to get into that zone . . . the best part of golf is when I have to make things happen. It is what I look for, what I enjoy, what I relish. To make things happen."

Which is an ability all of the game's great players have possessed.

Now, he is among them.

In many ways, the majors of this season were about men who continued to defy the odds.

In the season's first major at Augusta National, Immelman, who had undergone surgery on a benign cyst in his back in January, walked away with the green jacket, while, at Torrey Pines in June, Woods overcame a serious knee injury that would have greater repercussion when he defeated Mediate in the US Open, after a play-off.

Yet, in a season of many twists and turns, the ones executed by Harrington had more drama than any. A back-to-back major champion and winner of three of the last six majors.

Can it get any better than that?