The 90th PGA Championship

Wow, Congratulations to Padraig Harrington for his historic win at Oakland Hills.

Here he is taking us through his final round (full interview here):

KELLY ELBIN: Can you go through your birdies and bogeys, please, on a very dramatic day.

PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah. Obviously this was a different win today than the win at Birkdale. I was very comfortable with my game there. Very happy about what I was doing.
Here, it wasn’t the case. I wasn’t happy with how I was swinging the golf club this week in terms of my focus or maybe dehydration or tiredness, but something had me a little bit off my stride this week. My coordination wasn’t quite there.
So once I got into the weekend and holed a few putts, it really was a question of the adrenaline keeping me going, keeping me focused, keeping me pushing along.
I went out this afternoon not a hundred percent sure what lay ahead. As I said at Birkdale, I think I was quite assured of what I was doing. Here, I really didn’t know. So I kept to my game plan; kept hitting my shots. Obviously, as well as I felt I was doing, obviously I was trailing Sergio from early on.
And the only thing from experience that I know is that in a Major, nobody goes without making some mistakes. So as long as I could hang in there, I knew that I would get my opportunity; and if it was going to be my day, I would take that opportunity.
So I was patient in that sense that even though I was 2, three shots behind in the middle of the round, and through the turn I started playing the golf; and Sergio was got up-and-down on 8 and 9 from awkward positions, and it was looking like his day. I just kept in there and said, look, if I hang around, I will get an opportunity. And obviously that opportunity came.
As regards the actual scores, I hit it in close at the first. Hit a nice putt and missed.
Made a good 2-putt on the second. From the front edge of the green.
Had a chance for birdie on 3 and 4. Again, I hit a good putt at 4. Surprised that missed.
5, I hit a poor shot. I let it go in the wind when I was trying to hold it up and didn’t get up-and-down.
6, I was very happy with the birdie. Hit a good drive and a good bunker shot from 35 yards to four feet and holed the putt.
7, 8, well, 7 I made a good up-and-down again, and from about 35 yards, as well.
8, I played well.
9, I hit a decent shot into the bunkers got up-and-down, holing a tricky 3-footer.
Then you get to the back nine of a Major where it all starts. I hit a nice 8-iron into 10. Probably a little unlucky to come up sort of 15, 18 feet short. But I holed that putt and it got me on a run.
A little bit unlucky on 11 for it to hang up on the right-hand side, but a good birdie on 12 from in trouble.
I took the shot on. I knew I had to from in the trees. It was a tight second shot. I had to — it’s awkward when you’re trying to hit a shot around a tree. But you can’t, the tree was actually blocking where I was aiming because it was — so I literally had to hit like I was hitting through the tree for my second shot; which is an intimidating shot, but I knew I needed to take on the shot at this stage and there was no backing off.
Hit a nice shot over the green and played a nice pitch shot. Unlucky to go three feet by. Holed the putt. Actually thought I might hole that chip.
12, 13, has been a difficult hole all week, and with kind of thinking, you know, do we want to play short of the pin, and it’s very tight up the back there, but it worked out nice yardage just a little 5-iron for me. I could keep it down under the wind and hit it to about 15 feet, and my eye was in at this stage. And the putts, there was no question I was just fully focused on holing them and nothing else was in my mind. So I rolled that one in.
14, coming out of the rough, wasn’t quite sure it was a 9-iron or an 8-iron. I tried to hit 8-iron and it came out a little bit quick, and went over the green and got in an awkward lie. Tried to play the safe chip shot, give me some more room. I chipped it to about eight feet and I just hit a weak putt there. Yeah, tried to help it break when it did break itself.
15, obviously hit a nice 7-iron in there. Had a good opportunity for birdie. Hit it through the break.
16, hit a good tee shot there on 16. And it’s an awkward hole. There’s no doubt on under pressure, with that wind, you just are not a hundred percent sure what yardage you’re going to play the second shot there. I had about 135 yards, and I tried to hit a three quarter 8-iron. Hit it in there low. But I knew if I got it up in the wind, I was going about 20 feet left of the flag, and I knew if I got it up in the wind, it would obviously spin back, and come back in the wind.
So I tried to draw it, and obviously I overcooked it a bit and the wind seemed to change a little bit and it moved it left as well.
Wasn’t happy. Obviously. I had a 29-yard bunker shot, and but again I decided I got to take the shot on. I was looking; first time I looked at the leaderboard, it was at 16. I was aware that Ben was up there, and I felt that I had to take the shot on. Unlucky, I caught a stone between my ball and the my club, and that’s why it released so much.
But again the 20-footer, I was just, “Got to hole this, got to give it a chance.” There was no sort of anything but knocking it in the hole. Some days when you get your eye in like that, you do hole putts. So I rolled that one in.
17 was a — I looked at 17 at the start of the week, and we knew the pin would be back right, and on the last day and when the green was firm, we decided that the play was to the front of the green and try and putt up over the tier.
But with a little bit of softness in the green, we knew we could take it on and hit a nice shot straight down the pin. And I kind of felt like I had won the PGA at that stage, and thinking, “this is it.” I didn’t know how close it was, but I kind of felt from the way the crowd was, hopeful it was four feet and maybe six feet.
And I really felt positive that it was going to be my day there. And obviously Sergio followed it up with a great shot.
When I got up to the green we had no idea which was which, and obviously I’m 10 feet and Sergio is four feet. And but I did see, you know, I knew that I had the opportunity to get the putt in first. And that was important. I knew if I holed this, I probably would win the PGA. If I missed, Sergio would probably win the PGA.
So it was down to that. And I hit a lovely putt. Read it exactly how I wanted it, and it did exactly what I expected.
18, I hit an okay drive down 18. It was hanging down the right side. Looked like it could get the edge of the fairway, or the first cut of rough. Was a little, you know, lucky to finish up on the upslope underneath the fairways of the bunker. If I was a foot further right, I could have gone for the green. Tried to hit an 8-iron out about 120 yards, but because of the awkward stance, I hit it a bit fat; I did get a break. I got a nice lie in the rough. The ball obviously pitched and spun back on to the top of the grass in the rough there.
So that was; it was sitting pretty good. I had 142 yards and I hit a full 7-iron. It came out good and we watched it in the air, and it was hanging a bit and we were saying, well, you know, after seeing plenty of balls coming up short in the colder temperatures, it was very happy to see it come down pin-high.
Had a look at the putt, and it’s nice when you’ve got to hole a putt that you read a putt and you see the line straight away. It was an easy putt to read. It was a double-break: I hit it a cup right of the hole, and it was slightly downhill. So I didn’t want to hit it too hard, and I rolled it down there and it broke from a cup right to just outside the left edge.
And now I knew the pace was just about right, so as it was just getting to the hole, I wanted to see it break, and I could see it breaking, and I was just saying: Go on, keep going, keep going, break. It broke on the right left, and thankfully just got inside the left half and dropped very nice, as I said, to see the line on a putt when you’re under pressure like that. And that’s probably why I holed it.

Apart from Harringtons victory, just look at the solid performance the european players displayed. Jeev Milkha “the other” Singh and Robert Karlsson made the early pace in round one, Singh finishes T9, Karlsson T20 (the only major this year where he finished outsied the Top 10). Harrington and Garcia battling it out for the victory, Alastair Forsyth and Justin Rose inside the Top 10, Paul Casey with a solid final round finishing T15. Somewhat I feel confident for the Ryder Cup!!