Harrington's hopes all but over

Apr 11 2009

Padraig Harrington's hopes of a third successive major were all but dead and buried at The Masters on Saturday from the moment he had a nightmare quadruple bogey nine at the second hole of his third round.

There was no real hint of the drama to come when the Open and USPGA champion, resuming on two under par and seven behind, parred the first and then slightly pulled his drive down the next.

But it ran down a slope into the trees and, in trying to get down near the green on the par five, Harrington hit a trunk and rebounded further into trouble. He was forced to take a penalty drop, but his next attempt also hit a tree and went into a ditch.

Despite the overnight tornado which had dumped over an inch of water on the area in under two hours, he was able to play the ball out, but could not advance it far at all.

His sixth was just short of the green and by failing to get up and down he crashed to two over and, barring a miracle, out of contention. The nine was only one short of the record high score on the hole in Masters history.

Three birdies in the next seven holes represented a fine recovery, but he needed to keep that going just to have a chance and instead bogeyed the 10th and 11th.

On one over par he was down in 37th place and a massive 12 adrift of 48-year-old American Kenny Perry, who birdied the second and fourth as he maintained his bid to become the oldest winner in major history.

Perry, who lost a play-off to Mark Brooks at the 1996 USPGA championship, was one ahead of joint halfway leader Chad Campbell - he also birdied the second - and three clear of Argentina's Angel Cabrera.

Leading Europeans in joint 10th place on four under, seven back, were Harrington's playing partner Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter.

Westwood had three birdies and two bogeys in a front nine 35, then made up for going in the water and double-bogeying the 12th on Friday by making a two. Poulter was also out in 35 and had a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th. Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson had slipped back to two under, while Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose and Sandy Lyle all stood one under - as did Tiger Woods.