Philip Reid talks to Padraig Harrington about Saturday's damaging triple-bogey finish

The Irish community had come out in force, wearing their distinguishing county colours and roaring on encouragement in brogues that varied from Dublin to Donegal. Saturday afternoon at the US Open, the so-called "moving day," and the cries that greeted Padraig Harrington on each tee box and green, if not as hearty as those reserved for Phil Mickelson in the match ahead, were constant and loud. Until the end, that is.

After finally holing out on the 18th green, a tap-in for a triple-bogey seven, the shell-shocked player's mood was reflected in the crowds in the bleachers around him. The applause was polite and sympathetic, acknowledging perhaps that Harrington's quest for the US Open title had probably disappeared before their very eyes.

Having grinded and played some beautiful golf for the preceding three and three-quarter hours, the 15 minutes spent on the finishing hole, a par four of 450 yards, had damaged Harrington's ambitions. On a course where many players were battered and bruised, the 34-year-old Dubliner had been ambushed by the rough (of course you shouldn't be in there in the first place) and by the greens.

On this course, if you do venture into the thickest of the rough, the policy is to accept your fate. You take your punishment. On Saturday, having plunged into the rough off the tee, Harrington decided to reach the green with his rescue club but managed only to move the ball 20 yards. At least it came to rest on the fairway. However, he compounded the error with his next shot, pulling his approach into a greenside bunker. With the flag tucked in a cruel position on the front left of the green, Harrington had shortsided himself.

His bunker shot barely made the green, and he was left with a horrible downhill putt of 15 feet. It ran 10 feet by the hole, and he missed the one back too. How easy you can run up a triple-bogey! "That is what a US Open golf course is like, it can bite you at any stage," said Harrington.

Just over an hour after finishing his round, having spent time on the practice ground with his mind guru, Dr Bob Rotella, Harrington's demeanour had improved. The reality of his situation had set in. Of the big number accumulated on the 18th, which left him signing for a 74 for 216, six over, he said: "The minute I missed the fairway off the tee, I said, 'I'm going to make five, and that's it'." It didn't work out that way, though.

When Harrington got to his ball in the rough, he decided to use the rescue club that had served him well in similar situations on previous holes. "It was a bad lie, (but) I didn't think there was too much risk involved," he said, of his plan to get the ball as close to the green as possible.

The real problems arose when he pulled his iron shot. Instead of being in the middle of the green as planned, he was in a bunker. "I was struggling from there," he conceded.

All the way around the West Course on Saturday, Harrington had generated loud encouragement from the Irish and those Americans with Irish blood in their veins. "Paddy go Bragh" was a familiar, if unusual, shout of encouragement. By the end, those shouts were silenced by the dreadful finish.

"It is an incredible difference what three shots makes," said Harrington, of the task that faced him heading into yesterday's final round, four shots adrift of joint leaders Mickelson and Kenneth Ferrie.

"It is doable, but it's a situation now where I have to shoot a very good score. The likelihood is that I am going to have to shoot the best round of the week." At least the first three rounds showed that Harrington's game is good enough to contend in majors.

"I've been happy with my game all year," he said, adding: "A tougher golf course has brought the field back to me in terms of consistency. I haven't been shooting the low numbers so where better to come than a golf course where 70 is a good score?"

So, that finishing hole forced Harrington to alter his gameplan for the final round. Patience was thrown out the window. "Ideally I have to let go a little bit and not worry about the consequences of shooting a few over. If I do that, I am capable of shooting 66, 67."