Golf Blog

Padraig Harrington successfully defended his Open Championship title with a four-shot victory over Ian Poulter at Royal Birkdale, becoming the first European to successfully defend The Open since James Braid in 1906.

Harrington, who beat Sergio Garcia in a play-off to win at Carnoustie last year, was a major doubt in the days leading up to the event after injuring his wrist winning the Irish PGA. It seems that history has repeated itself as Harrington missed out on practice time leading up to The Open at Royal Birkdale and at Carnoustie last year. The victory all but assures Harrington of a place in Nick Faldo’s European Ryder Cup team for the defence of their title in September.

Choi, who was tied with Harrington on four over after three rounds, fell back with a 79 to end 13 over. England’s Simon Wakefield, third overnight, partnered Choi in the penultimate group on Sunday but plummeted with a disastrous back nine of 43, including a triple-bogey eight at the 17th to end 14 over. South Africa’s two-time Open champion Ernie Els ended in a tie for seventh on 12 over despite a first-round 80 after carding a closing 69. England’s Paul Casey also finished tied seventh after a 70, as did countryman David Howell who climbed back up the leaderboard with a 67.

Another nice story from The Open was that of the English amateur, Chris Wood, who finished tied for 7^th. He birdied the par-five 17th hole and parred the last at Hillside to secure his place at Birkdale through LFQ with rounds of 71-72 and was the winner of the Welsh Stroke Play Championship at Conwy in 2008, he moved to seventh spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking to become England’s leading player.

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