Nightmare nine for Harrington

Apr 11 2009

Padraig Harrington's hopes of a third successive major were hanging by the thinnest of threads at The Masters today after 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.

It ran down a slope into the trees, however, 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 away from the bushes, but his next attempt also hit a tree and went into a ditch.

Despite the overnight tornado which had dumped more than 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.

Even before the adventure, Harrington's task had been made harder by the unluckiest of penalty strokes at the 15th hole of his second round when a gust of wind blew his ball on the green after he had addressed it.

At 11 behind Americans Chad Campbell and Kenny Perry, who had yet to resume, it looked mission impossible and Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan seemed certain to remain the only two players in history to win three successive different majors.

Woods was only two groups behind Harrington and his chance of a 15th major and fifth green jacket nose-dived too when he took a double bogey six on the first. He dropped back to level par as a result.

There was better news of Rory McIlroy after all that happened to him on Friday, but even an outward 35 left him on the same mark as Woods and nine back.

The 19-year-old Northern Irishman had four-putted the 16th for a double bogey five, then had a triple bogey seven on the 18th which contained two shots in the greenside bunker.