Padraig Harrington was undone by a shot bearing the stamp of excellence, allied to a good bit of luck, that eventually brought to a close a remarkable and at times baffling WGC Accenture World Matchplay Championship at La Costa for the Irishman. He earned €201,504 for his last-eight finish.

On Saturday afternoon, when Davis Love holed his 111-yard wedge, third shot to the 18th, to grab not alone an eagle but victory by the slenderest of margins, there was little his opponent could have done. Harrington's ball rested 11 feet from the pin, giving him a decent chance of making the birdie he felt he required to take the match to tie holes, for the third time in as many days.

But he wasn't about to cavil in the aftermath. It's not his style.

"Well, actually it's not a tough way to lose. It's a good way to lose if you are going to lose," he said. "I wouldn't see it (as a bad thing) like that at all. I was expecting Davis to get up and down on the last, and I'd have to hole mine to go to 19. I was prepared for that, but not prepared for him holing out."

A straw poll in the galley would have supported his assertion.

If Love's ball hadn't hit the pin dead centre, it would most likely have spun back to the front apron given the gradient of the green that sloped severely from back to front.

"I visualised it going up real close, where I had to tap it in. I didn't expect to make it," Love said.

"I knew I had the right club, and it's just every once in a while that you get lucky. When you hit the greens you never know how much it is going to spin. I was wondering how far it would spin back or if it was going to spin back. I was fortunate to win like that."

The American was largely in control for most of the match, and was gift-wrapped the momentum early on when Harrington ran up bogeys at the third and fourth holes to go three down, with Love registering a tap-in birdie at the fourth.

It was a familiar vista for the Irishman, pretty much all week, as he struggled to harness an errant game, generally availing of the front nine to recalibrate his swing. On Saturday, though, his game misfired less often, and by the eighth he had reduced the deficit to a single hole. But with Love's birdie on nine he turned two down.

Harrington had a couple of chances on the greens before grabbing a birdie on 15, and a poor chip from his opponent on the 17th led to a bogey to level the match before the final-green fireworks.

"I played better," Harrington admitted, "but what's been going wrong with my game the last few days is a test of my short game. That wasn't nearly good enough today. When I struggled early on I didn't get up and down. Ultimately it's hard. Davis was playing very well and it's hard to give him three holes.

"I didn't finish out well today. I played a bit better than I did in the last two matches, but the short game was rough. You can't get away with that all the time. It was good the last couple of days but not in this match."

The conundrum for Harrington is trying to juggle the obvious rust that accompanies a winter break and practice routine, continue to make the swing adjustments that he feels are pivotal to his improvement as a player and try to fast-track his competitiveness in tournament play.

"Trying to turn the practice off and play golf is very difficult. I'm right in between. As I said, I would have been better going back to my technique. It will take a few weeks to get me out of it."

The defeat to Love allowed him to hit the range, which he did on Saturday night and Sunday morning before departing for the Ford Championship at Doral.

He'll play the next couple of weeks - he takes in the Honda Classic in which he is the defending champion - before returning to Ireland for a week, his game a work in progress.