ESPN 2007 British Open

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- Three feet. One yard. Thirty-six measly inches.

Padraig Harrington stood over his bogey putt on the final hole of a British Open playoff knowing all that separated him from his first major championship title -- the first for Europe in eight years, the first for Ireland in 60 years -- was a swath of green the length of his putter.

It seemed an excruciatingly short distance to complete what has been such a decidedly long journey. A highly-ranked junior player who said he turned professional in 1995 only "because the guys I was able to beat as an amateur were turning pro, not because I thought I was good enough," Harrington quickly became a European Tour regular, globe-trotting from tournament to tournament in an effort to continually climb golf's ever-growing food chain.

And climb he did. The journey brought him to the Ryder Cup, where he's played on each of the Past four European teams. It brought him to the United States, where he has earned two career PGA Tour victories.

It brought him worldwide acclaim for becoming one of the game's elite. And yet a player of Harrington's caliber can be saddled with certain monikers if not for the proper hardware. The best player to have never won a major. He heard the whispers, knew he was on the short list of golf's ultimate win-lose situation, one in which the words "best" and "never" are so finely intertwined.

So he continued the journey, continued the battle to cross his name off that list. He ventured to Carnoustie when virtually no other player did, taking in the seaside links course in the weeks and months before the Open was to be played. He competed in a lower-level tournament, the Irish PGA Championship at the European Club last week, if only to get himself accustomed to links-style golf.

All of the preparation and hard work led to a spot on the leaderboard through three rounds, but not the spot he would have hoped for. Entering Sunday, Harrington was 3-under for the tournament, tied with six others for third place, six shots behind leader Sergio Garcia. The Irishman kept plugging away, though, making three birdies during a front-nine 33, then another on 11 and an eagle on 14. He climbed atop the leaderboard, the final leg of his journey one step from reaching fruition, the Claret Jug just minutes from being held in his arms.

And then he reached the final hole.

In a heartbreaking display of golf reminiscent of Jean Van de Velde's mighty collapse in this very tournament, at this very course, on this very hole in 1999, Harrington drove his tee shot into the Barry Burn, took a drop, then promptly deposited his next shot into the creek as well.

"When I hit it in the water, I was disappointed," Harrington later recounted. "But once I walked up there, I said, 'Look, I've got to get this up and down.' " A chip and a putt later, Harrington was in the clubhouse with a chance to still complete his journey. "That was probably the most pressure-filled putt I had of the day. If I missed it, it was the end of it. To hole it was a great boost to me. That was a moment that I thought, now maybe things are going to go my way."

They did, as Garcia bogeyed that same hole, dropping the two men into a share of the lead through 72 holes. Padraig made birdie to Sergio's bogey on the first of four extra holes, they each parred the next two, and then Garcia made par on the last, leaving Harrington, ultimately and finally, with three feet, one yard, 36 measly inches between himself and history.

"If there's a putt I don't like, it's a right-to-left," Harrington said of the Open-clinching putt. "I really didn't like that putt. It was two feet too long, probably three feet too long."

No matter. Harrington poured it right into the heart of the cup, all those years of hard work, the long wait, the preparation sliding right down the hole with his ball.

"Just to see it rolling in there, and I know it was only a short putt, but the emotions of it, I couldn't believe it as it was rolling in," he said. "I'm thinking, the Open champion. Am I the Open champion? What does it mean?"

It means the long journey, Padraig Harrington, is finally over.

Jason Sobel is ESPN.com's golf editor. He can be reached at Jason.Sobel@espn3.com