T.J.'s Take: Rain, Harrington save the day at PGA

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It's not often that rain saves the day on the golf course, but that's exactly what happened at Oakland Hills Country Club last week in the 90th PGA Championship.

T.J. Auclair

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Widely known for years and years, Oakland Hills is one of the most difficult courses in the U.S. So, why then did we expect that it wouldn't play that way last week?

Players griped, going so far as to call the set up "unfair" over the first two rounds. For a while, kit seemed like everyone showed up for a PGA Championship and a U.S. Open broke out -- the premium on par was, well, at a premium. Mistakes were magnified to the nth degree.

Then, a funny thing happened on Saturday. The heavens opened and bombarded Oakland Hills with pouring rains. Suddenly the course known as "The Monster" wasn't so scary after all.

In a matter of 24 hours, the 90th PGA Championship went from one of the -- how do you say -- least exciting majors in recent years to a closing stretch that might go among the more memorable.

A major championship is supposed to be difficult. I have no problem with that, whatsoever. But when it comes to the majors -- at least for my money -- I want to see a player go out there and grab it, rather than watch someone suffer a terrible meltdown. Players can melt down at majors quicker than an ice cream cone on pavement on a hot summer day.

Through two rounds at Oakland Hills, it looked like we were more likely to see a collapse than a hero.

But the rain and a particular Irishman fixed that for all of us.

How about Padraig Harrington? Is this guy kidding us? Rain or no rain, shooting 4-under 66 in the final two rounds of any major means you should be hoisting hardware when play ends. Also, he played the last three holes in 1-under par. It wasn't a pretty 1-under par either.

There's no question that golf has an incredible void these days with Tiger Woods out while nursing that famous knee injury. However, Harrington's resilience and ability to pull off clutch shots when it's counted most in the last two majors has been, well, Tiger-like.

After winning at 3-under 277 on Sunday evening, two shots better than Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis, Harrington explained that he lives for having a chance on the back nine in the final round of a major. He went on to say that he has no idea what he's going to do with himself since the next major -- the 2009 Masters -- isn't for another eight months.

If things go according to plan, Tiger will be back by then. Over the years, people have been dying to anoint a rival for the world's No. 1 player. Do we have one now in Harrington? That remains to be seen. While he has won three majors in the last 13 months, let's face it, two of them were in the absence of Woods.

What does that mean? Not a lot as far as I'm concerned. You can only beat the competition that's there.

Is the pressure to win a major championship and pull off the ultimate shots when you need them the most lessened since you don't have to worry about Tiger? Maybe.

All Harrington can be concerned with, however, is himself. Therefore, if you want to be one of those people who say that a major win without Tiger in the field deserves an asterisk, you're entitled to your opinion.

But just know that while he was gone, Harrington was more than happy to collect both asterisks and trophies.