Irishman wins Irish golf open

For the first time in 25 years an Irishman has won the major golf trophy in Ireland. Padraig Harrington won the Irish open yesterday after a play off. Padriag hailed his dramatic Irish Open victory as one of the highlights of his career. The 35-year-old Dubliner triumphed on the first play-off hole and added his national open title to a CV which includes several Ryder Cup wins, a World Cup victory in 1997 and his current position as European number one. "I would put it as an equal (achievement),' Harrington said. 'The World Cup I won with Paul McGinley was just unbelievable, there's no question about it. I would have to say for excitement that was incredible. the Ryder Cup in 2002, again, unbelievable, the excitement in that. There have been a number of other events, but this is at the top of the pile, no question about it. But I wouldn't set it apart."
Padriag Harrington added " I'm thrilled, I felt coming into the tournament, aside from a bit of jetlag, that I was on top of my game and really ready to play. So I spent the whole week trying to keep a really even keel and not get ahead of myself all the way through. It's quite a relief, when you're trying to keep it down all the time, trying to keep your emotions down, it's quite a relief now to have won it. I was a little bit more nervous certainly than the last round of the US Open last year or the last round of the Masters this year. In both those cases, I wasn't leading. It's definitely harder to go in with a lead. Going out there I knew it was never going to be easy and I was kind of sure, I had it in my head that it was quite possible I would lose the lead at some stage in the round. I felt good that I had a great chance of winning and felt confident about winning. I didn't wish I was going to do it easily, I kind of knew I was going to make it hard."

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Irishman wins Irish golf open