Pádraig Harrington never expected a second major victory to follow so soon after the first. But, now that it has and in the manner that it has, golf's new world number three believes there could well be more to come.

Harrington, who at Royal Birkdale became the first European to make a successful defence of The Open since James Braid in 1906, said: "This will give me more confidence. It was the first time I was in the last group of a major tournament on a Sunday.

"It's a different pressure and I'm delighted that I managed it. I hit the ball probably every bit as solid as I've ever hit it and I'm really thrilled with the way I felt," he said. "I was comfortable, very relaxed and at no stage did I get ahead of myself.

"I kept myself on my toes. I need a certain level of tension, but I don't need too much and I think I got that spot-on.

"I got to sixth in the world before and I wasn't comfortable there. It was 'ooh, I'm sixth and I'm not good enough' But I've improved and I'm continuing to improve. I've got to say that if you ask me my best trait over the years it's been my ability to learn.

"It's to look around me, see what's out there, take the best from everything and try and put it together.

"If I was standing still I'd lose the interest. You kind of have to have the feeling that things are better in order to get up every morning and want to get out there in order to get to the gym, do the boring stuff and not eat that extra piece of pudding."

Harrington continued: "I've had a funny year. My results might have looked quite average, but wins like this help you wait it out.

"Thankfully what I might be getting good at is making sure those days are the big days and that's very important. My goal is to keep getting myself into contention in majors. They are what it's all about for me.

"I set my schedule out for this year for the four majors and the Ryder Cup. I was trying to peak for them.

"I got myself vaguely in contention at The Masters (he tied fifth), the US Open it didn't happen (he was 36th) and The Open it happens.

"If I can get 50 per cent into contention and then maybe hit one out of four of those you're winning every second year. That's a pretty high rate for most of us mere mortals."

Tiger Woods, of course, is more than a "mere mortal", having already amassed 14 majors, but in his enforced absence through injury everybody was wondering who would capitalise and Harrington was the first to do it.

And he did so after a wrist problem endangered his defence of the Claret Jug. Never has "beware the injured golfer" been so apposite.

The concern and the focus on his health helped the Dubliner, taking the attention away from the "can you do it again?" questions both from the media and from inside his own head.

Twelve months ago a closing bogey from Sergio Garcia enabled Harrington to escape from what would been the mental torment of his own 72nd hole double bogey.

This time he was level with Ian Poulter, playing five groups ahead of him, and the birdied the 13th and 15th before hitting five-wood, five-wood to three feet for a brilliant clinching eagle on the long 17th.

That five-wood was the favourite club in his bag even before those two shots. Now it is worth its weight in gold.

From outside the first 10 on the Ryder Cup points table Harrington, told to "pull your finger out" by captain Nick Faldo at a dinner last Tuesday, is now top.

Poulter is up to 12th, but still has to grab one of the automatic places and with Paul Casey, Colin Montgomerie and injury-hit Luke Donald outside as well - and Justin Rose very close to joining them - Faldo's two wild cards might be no easy matter at the end of next month.

Harrington, though, can now target the US PGA at Oakland Hills in just three weeks' time and then the match at Valhalla in September without any concern for his cup place.

It was practising almost fanatically hard a week last Saturday which brought the wrist injury, but he has already promised a week off to celebrate before he flies to America to try to make it two majors in a row on the back of two Opens in a row.

And if he does that then reaching the world number one spot while Woods is still recovering from his knee surgery might not seem the far-off dream that it remains at the moment.

For the time being, though, third sounds good and twice Open champion sounds even better.

-PA