Padraig Harrington is a stud

 I had it.
    With Sergio Garcia in the lead of the PGA Championship for most of Sunday, I began to draft the now-that-Sergio-won-the-PGA-who-is-the-best-golfer-without-a-major column. Would it be Adam Scott? Stewart Cink? Luke Donald? Maybe Stuart Appleby?
    But When Padraig Harrington sunk the 10-foot par putt to secure his second major tournament victory in a row (and third in the last six), I knew I should have seen it coming.
    Let's not pile on Sergio, though; the pundits of the golf world will find a way to continuously needle and prod him while still maintaining their air of gentility. Suffice it to say that after holding the lead for ten holes in what was his best shot at winning a major so far, it was a choke job of Mickelsonian proportion.
    This moment, like so many others this year, belonged to Harrington.
    The Dubliner was on fire around the putting surface in the clutch moments of the tournament that saw him gobble up Garcia on the final three holes of play.
    It was his second PGA Tour win of the year (following his second-straight British Open win) and the fifth of his PGA career. He also has 13 European Tour wins.
    And did you know that Harrington is a distant cousin of the underachieving Atlanta Falcon quarterback Joey Harrington (who will return to clipboard duty just as soon as rookie Matt Ryan gets acquainted with the speed of the NFL game). Padraig can call his other cousin, "Action" Dan Harrington for a loan should the golf money ever run out as well.
    "Action" Dan won the 1995 World Series of Poker. Some families are so spoiled.
    The golf world held its collective breath when Tiger Woods announced that he would undergo season-ending knee surgery after his heroic June win at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, Calif.
    Would golf be interesting at all? Who would want to watch the b-team fight for the scraps in Tiger's absence? Could the PGA deal with the loss of its most dominant figure? Who would step up?
    Harrington has answered at least the latter question. After watching Phil Mickelson burst onto the major championship scene at the Masters in 2004 and stay at the forefront of the Tiger-foil conversation until only 2006, there is no reason to think that Harrington can keep pace with Woods once he makes his return to health and golf supremacy.
    But Harrington has kept golf fans' attention.
    He had the complete focus and grit on Sunday to win his third major at the expense of Garcia, and it will be exciting to watch Harrington go after Tiger at the top of a leaderboard, if and when he gets a chance.