Harrington and Campbell beyond psychologists' help

After surviving a traumatic collapse over the closing holes of the Smurfit European Open, Michael Campbell safely presented Jos Vanstiphout with a magnum of champagne. It should have been given to Padraig Harrington.

Vanstiphout is a Belgian psychologist who works with a group of leading players including Campbell, Darren Clarke, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia. He used to be employed by Harrington – he has switched to the American Bob Rotella – to help cope with the pressure of winning tournaments when the going gets tough.

On Sunday evening at the K Club on the outskirts of Dublin, Harrington's home city, the going was as tough as it gets and Harrington came as close to drowning as golf will allow. "I don't think Padraig is mentally strong enough yet," Vanstiphout observed, "but I'm sure he'll learn from the experience." Had Campbell, the overnight leader by a stroke from Harrington, not held on to win by a stroke, the damage to the New Zealander could have been serious. Everything was going swimmingly for Campbell who, in front of a record crowd of nearly 30,000 (the vast majority of whom had descended on the K Club to support Harrington), was a model of consistency for 14 holes.

With Harrington lurching from birdies to bogeys, Campbell stretched his lead to five strokes when he got to 10 under par for the championship and was involved in an excruciating climax resembling Russian roulette. The leader three-putted the 15th for his first bogey of the final round; he could not get out of the rough at the 16th, where he took six; he dropped another shot at the 17th and hit it into the lake at the last. A 73 put him at six under for the tournament.

Harrington, who at one point got to seven under, hit his approach shot into the water at the 16th, missed a three-foot putt at the 17th and followed Campbell into the lake at the last. He, too, shot 73 to finish joint second with Paul Lawrie, Retief Goosen and Bradley Dredge. Ranked 12th in the world (Campbell was 29th), Harrington has won four times but has been a runner-up on 16 occasions.

"I'm gutted," Harrington said, a word he would use more than once. "Michael saw the winning post and started to bleed. I kept on being given chances." Having eagled the 18th in the third round, he thought he could do so again. "I was trying to get it as close as possible. I had one eye on the flag and pulled it a little." Campbell, who won £333,330, said: "I was very surprised when Padraig followed me into the water. I thought he would hit it about 30 feet right of the pin and aim for a two-putt birdie. I think he made a bad swing and tugged it five yards too far left. It was on the brink of being a great shot."

The 33-year-old, who has homes in Auckland and Brighton, had not won for 18 months. "I was in the zone for 14 holes and playing great and then all of a sudden things started turning on me. The way I mentally played the last four holes was pretty disgusting.

"I was cruising along and preparing my acceptance speech. I was doing the sort of things which Jos has trained me not to do. But hey, I've got the trophy. I will learn from the experience and become a better player for it." Messrs Vanstiphout and Rotella have plenty to work on.

* Fifteen players qualified for next week's Open Championship from the Western Open in Illinois, which was won by Jerry Kelly. Duffy Waldorf, Brandt Jobe, Stuart Appleby, Chris Riley, Neal Lancaster, Steve Stricker, John Riegger and Bob Tway all qualified through their finishes, while Stephen Ames, Chris Smith, Jeff Maggert, Tim Petrovic, Jonathan Kaye, Peter Lonard and Jim Carter qualified via a special money list.