Harrington confronts his second nature

The 131st Open: Another weekend in contention, another disappointment for the nearly man ? but he knows deliverance day is at hand

After the kamikaze capers at the K Club last weekend Greg Norman was asked if Padraig Harrington would be mentally scarred by the experience. "He would have been worried about it on Monday," Norman said, "but if he was still thinking about it on Tuesday he might have a problem."

As he has yet to show signs that he has fully recovered from the trauma of losing the Masters to Nick Faldo six years ago, the Great White Shark is suitably qualified on the subject of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

However, the stakes at Augusta were considerably higher than in Co Kildare for the Smurfit European Open last week when Harrington, having witnessed at first hand the rise and fall of Michael Campbell, suffered his own torment. As Campbell blew a five-stroke lead by finishing with four bogeys, including an inexplicable shot into the lake at the last, almost inviting Harrington to take over, the Dubliner responded by hitting the ball into the water at the 16th and 18th (where the lake on the left of the hole is called Hooker's Graveyard) and missing a three-foot putt at the 17th.

Afterwards Harrington – he and Sergio Garcia are the only Europeans in the world top 10 – had little time to accentuate the negative. There was money to be earned. The following day he was at Mount Juliet near Kilkenny, giving a clinic for one of his sponsors, Wilson, and then he flew in Norman's helicopter to Co Clare for the opening of Doonbeg Golf Club. In a challenge match, Harrington shot an approximate 69 (putts were conceded) to the 67 of Norman, who designed the links course. Only 750 people were supposed to visit the environmentally sensitive course but a crowd of 2,500 turned up. Harrington then dashed back to the K Club to promote the Special Olympics, for people with learning difficulties, which Ireland hosts next summer.

It is as well he was not playing in the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond although he will, of course, be at Muirfield next week for The Open. With top- 10 finishes this season at the Masters and the US Open, the upwardly mobile Harrington, who will be 31 next month, is considered a contender. A partner in Baggott Racing in Dublin, the bookmaking firm run by his brother, Harrington is quoted at 28-1.

Form suggests he can be backed only each way, if at all. Before winning the European Open, almost by default, Campbell was bemoaning the fact he had won only four times in Europe. That is Harrington's sum total, having reluctantly specialised in the silver-medal position. After his debut win in the Spanish Open in 1996 he was second nine times, breaking the sequence with a victory in Brazil in 2000. Last season he was runner-up on another seven occasions, including a defeat to Ian Woosnam in the final of the World Match Play at Wentworth.

"That hurt more," Harrington said, "because I was in control and threw it away. It took me a while to figure it out. There is no problem about recovering from what happened at the K Club. If I had won it would have been because I had stolen it from Campbell. It was his to lose. I've had worse experiences."

Like being disqualified from the Benson and Hedges International at The Belfry two years ago when he led by five strokes going into the last round. Harrington had failed to sign his card following a 63 in the first round and that was inadvertently the fault of one of his playing partners... Michael Campbell.

Poetic justice would have been served last Sunday had Harrington, before his home crowd, beaten Campbell, but again he had to settle for second best. When he pulled his six iron into the lake at the last (this hole is going to sort the men from the buoys in the 2006 Ryder Cup) it cost him £200,000. The healing process began immediately with Harrington emphasising that it was the right approach. It was the execution that was wrong. He had eagled the hole the day before and felt he could do so again. "There was no point hitting to the middle of the green, settling for a birdie and seeing if I could win in a play-off. I was trying to hit it as close as I could. It was my chance to win it there and then."

What is startling about all of this is that it flies in the face of the persona he had created. Harrington, who completed an accountancy degree before turning pro, is the thinking man's golfer, his career following a steady path to the top. The former Irish amateur champion graduated through the Walker Cup and the World Cup to the Ryder Cup, in which he made a memorable debut in the infamous 1999 match against the United States at Brookline. While all around him were losing their heads, Harrington calmly and coolly beat Mark O'Meara on a tumultuous final day. He will return to Ryder Cup duty at The Belfry in September.

His coach, Bob Torrance, says that nobody works harder. Technically he was getting there, driving the ball further than ever. In a game described by Colin Montgomerie as "100 per cent mental", Harrington works with the Charlotte sports psychologist Bob Rotella, whose book, Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect, is the Dubliner's bedtime reading. The message is that perfection is unattainable, and one of Harrington's favourite lines is not to expect too much.

None of which explains his gambler's behaviour at Hooker's Graveyard in the final round. He got a par five, was going for a perfect three and lost by a stroke. A four would have put him in a play-off for which he would have been odds on, given Campbell's climax.

He secured a four there in the second round when not even a mobile phone ringing on his backswing upset him. "People leave them on by accident," he said. "I was at a teen horror movie called Scream which begins with a girl being phoned by the murderer. My mobile went off and the whole cinema jumped. I nearly broke my phone trying to turn it off."

Harrington, like a good accountant, compiles his own statistics, jotting them in a diary. "I've been working very hard on my long game, which means that my short game has fallen back a bit. I'm hoping to reach the stage where I get to a tournament and I know what my swing is like so I can spend more time practising all the other stuff. The guys I'm jealous of are those with a low-maintenance swing.

"I'm very content knowing my game is still developing. I know what I'm doing and every time I play I'm amazed at the difference from previous years. I've still got work to do. I'm nowhere near the finished product."