A Swing and a Prayer: Harrington Struggles, Woods Favored

TURNBERRY, Scotland, July 14 -- This should be the recipe for being the favorite at the British Open, which tees off here Thursday: Win the tournament the previous year, plus the year before that, plus throw in another major title since last year's Open. Take all that, and there's no way Britain's betting public -- a large segment of the general public, it would seem -- could lay the smart money elsewhere.

Yet here, Tuesday, was that player, Padraig Harrington, looking almost sheepish.

"Not really showing much form in the last couple of weeks," he said. "Not really knowing what to expect."

The actual favorite in the tournament, then, is the man who is favored every time he tees it up, Tiger Woods. The problem there: Woods, for the first time since early 2005, currently holds no major titles. He missed the British a year ago at Royal Birkdale, managing only to watch the final nine holes as he endured the pain from major knee and leg surgery. This year, he struggled to hit the ball well at the Masters, struggled to putt it well at the U.S. Open, and now has two more chances to avoid his first year without a major championship since 2004.

And yet, still . . .

"Obviously," England's Paul Casey said, "Tiger is the favorite."

Despite their different states of body and mind entering the 138th Open Championship -- Woods has won three times this year, including his last start at Congressional outside Washington; Harrington has missed the cut in five straight events -- Harrington and Woods actually have an enormous amount in common. In many ways, the current version of Harrington has something in common with Woods, circa 2003-04.

"I've been through it before," Woods said.

Back then, Woods was coming off an absurd stretch in which he won seven of 11 majors, including four straight. At the end of 2002, he had just turned 28, and already had eight major titles. His response: Overhaul his swing.

"I knew it was right for me," Woods said in an interview earlier this summer, "even if not everyone understood."

Harrington is now in the position of trying to get the golfing public -- particularly those folks here, who have a keen interest in the Irishman's pursuit of a third straight Open title -- to understand that he is not the player he was a year ago. He is, in fact, worse, without a win since his PGA Championship last August gave him a Tiger-like back-to-back major experience. The odds of becoming the first man to win three straight Claret Jugs since Peter Thomson of Australia, from 1954 to '56?

"Very sketchy, obviously," Harrington said.