GOLF: Padraig Harrington once again offered a wonderful vindication of his competitive instincts in ousting Vijay Singh from the WGC Accenture World Matchplay Championship at La Costa.

It's not about how, it's not about red figures on the scoreboard and it's not even about playing well or swinging well. Matchplay is just about winning.

The Irishman didn't play well by his own admission in outlasting the world number two before claiming his triumph for the second successive day at the first tie hole but he did demonstrate the resolve and character not to buckle when it mattered. It was Singh whose game betrayed him, fatally at the 19th when he drove into a bunker and couldn't make a regulation four.

Harrington was slightly bemused by an unlikely success in the aftermath. "To be honest I was just trying to avoid the dog licence (7 and 6 defeat) initially. I wasn't playing well on the front nine but managed to hang in there.

"He had opportunities throughout the round to put me away but a bit like yesterday's game he didn't them and I just kind of hung around. It then comes down to taking a couple of chances and getting the rub of the green, which ultimately decides a contest like that. I got it and I'm happy to have won. To be honest I can't look any further than the first hole tomorrow."

The Dubliner isn't quite sure where the ball is going at times due to what he perceives to be essential remedial work that will ultimately make him a better ball striker. It's hardly opportune to be tinkering in tournament play and in producing that wonderful recovery in the previous round when beating Angel Cabrera he uncluttered his mind and knuckled down to playing his opponent.

It's an attitude he once again embraced on the back nine, which he played in level par. He might have won the match on the home grebe but saw his birdie putt lip out. "I was pretty sure it was in because I'd been holing those sort of putts and when you do that you tend to think they'll all fall." He closed the door emphatically on the next hole.

During the course of a tight tussle Harrington discovered that Singh's swing was periodically misfiring, a classic example when he pushed his approach to the green on the seventh, from the centre of the fairway, 30 yards right of the green.

The Irishman couldn't capitalise because despite catching a good lie in the rough off the tee, he undercooked his approach and ended up in the right hand front bunker. The pair was unable to get up and down and eventually halved the hole in bogey fives.

Harrington looked relaxed on the first tee, sharing a few words with West Indian cricketing legend Sir Garfield Sobers who was an honorary observer for this match.

However his smile quickly vanished when he tugged his tee shot into a fairway bunker, eventually conceding the hole. A glorious tee shot on the next set up a 12 foot birdie opportunity but he caught the lip and kept going.

It was his putter though that provided the decisive blow on the par five, third. A great pitch that landed two feet from the pin deserved better than to spin back to the front edge but from there the Irishman holed the 30 foot putt for birdie and a win. It was a short lived respite as an under-cooked wedge for his second came up short and left him with a difficult chip.

He failed to get up and down, his second bogey of the round restoring Singh's one hole lead, which he took to the turn. The back nine was to offer an improvement in standard generally, Harrington holing a 15 foot birdie putt on the 10th only for Singh to chip in for eagle at the next but the Fijian's frailty with the putter was to betray him on the 12th, three putting for bogey.

Opportunities went abegging on the way in for both players until Singh's veneer finally cracked. Another remarkable triumph but it doesn't get much easier for Harrington who'll now take on Davis Love in the quarter-finals.

He's just happy to be there.