Harrington "putts" it in a nutshell

Padraig Harrington's bid to become the first player in 53 years to win the British Open three times in a row ended on Saturday when he shot a 6-over 76 to finish the day 13 shots behind leader Tom Watson.

"I think my challenge faded on seven and eight," he said in reference to his bogey-double bogey sequence. "I needed things to go well for me, hole a few putts and do a few things."

Mentally, the Dubliner was in the wrong place all week.

But when asked if he could assess the week by "putting it in a nutshell", he summed it up perfectly.

"Putting in a nutshell....I don't seem to be able to put it in a four and a quarter inch cup. I doubt I'm going to get it into a nutshell."

Harrington has holed virtually nothing in three rounds, making just two single putt birdies all week. They came at the fifth in the first round, where he holed a 12 footer and the first hole of the third round, where he drained one from 10 feet. He's only made four birdies so far with the other two coming with two-putts at the par-five 17th.

He's hit 28 greens in regulation out of 54 and taken 56 putts - another words his putts per green in regulation statistics are 2.00 per green.

"I hit an ugly putt on the second and that missed and then three-putted the third," he said. "Poor error on six and again on seven, couple of good shots wasted there. On the back nine I kept leaving putts. I actually got three putts up to the hole all day and three-putted all of them. It wasn't my day."

At least Harrington can now look ahead to his defense of the PGA Championship at Hazeltine Aug. 10-16.

"I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks off and do a bit more work and I'll look forward to getting back and building up for the PGA," Harrington said.