Just as he could at The Masters in April, Pádraig Harrington was able to pinpoint the moment today when his Major hat-trick bid became mission impossible.

At Augusta Harrington, having won the last two Majors of last year, ran up a quadruple-bogey nine on the second hole of his third round and left himself too much ground to make up.

At Turnberry it was a six on the seventh hole of his third round which signalled the beginning of the end of his challenge for a third successive Open - something last achieved by Peter Thomson in 1956.

“It just wasn’t my week. I needed things to go for me and there was a little bit of deflation after taking six on a par five,” said the Dubliner, who after resuming eight behind dropped to nine over par with a 76.

Of the six shots it was his third, a 77-yard pitch from the right-hand rough, which did the most damage to his frame of mind.

“It was a pretty simple shot and I couldn’t convince myself to hit it. I don’t know why. It was poor — on another day I’d just see it and hit it.”

He failed to find the green and then did not get up and down.

“After that it was tough going,” he admitted.

His next drive went left and from there he double-bogeyed the eighth and coming home dropped further shots on the 12th, 14th and 16th.

“It was not a very tidy round at all. I had three three-putts and a few other mental errors. I started well (the birdie on the first was his only one of the day) and faded out rapidly.

“I’m certainly happy with my ball-striking (that had been the major concern after five successive missed cuts on Tour), but I’m not so happy with my mental side.

“But I’m not surprised I wasn’t better. I knew that was going to be an issue. I made some wrong decisions and on a windy, tough course you need things to be going for you.

“I’ve always felt a little behind the eight-ball this week — I wasn’t quite making it happen.”

Asked if it felt strange getting up on the Sunday of an Open and not having a chance to win he replied: “I play close to 30 events a year and in a good year 26 of them are like that.”

After the final round Harrington takes two weeks off, but he will be putting in the hours to try to make as good a defence of the US PGA title as he can.

That takes place at Hazeltine in Minnesota on August 13th-16th.

That may still be too soon for Rory McIlroy, who admitted he does not believe he is ready to win a Major yet,

The 20-year-old was among the favourites behind Tiger Woods to win the Open at Turnberry this week but a third-round 74 ended any distant hopes of that.

Instead the world number 22 is focusing on improving on his best finish on his only other appearance at an Open, two years ago when he won the Silver Medal for leading amateur after coming 42nd.

Asked if being one of the pre-tournament favourites had been detrimental McIlroy replied: “No, because the favourite missed the cut so I have done better than him. I knew coming in here there were a lot of guys who had a better chance of winning this tournament than me.

“I still feel it is too early for me to win a major. I have a lot of improving to do and maybe in a couple of years’ time I can talk about it.”

The Holywood player began the day three over and needed a good round to edge himself closer to the top 10 but bogeys on his opening three holes put paid to that.

However, he arrested the slide and finished with three successive birdies to show that when he is on his game anything is possible.

“I didn’t get off to the best starts; I just didn’t hit the fairways and put myself behind the eight ball,” he said.

“I was five over through five and then I held it together. From the sixth onwards I was one under.

“I was pretty happy with the way I finished and if I can go out tomorrow and play like I did the last nine holes today I could shoot a good score.

“I finished 42nd in my first Open Championship and if I can shoot a good one and finish better — maybe in the top 20 or 30 — then I feel I will have done well considering how I have played this week.

“Today I have hit some of the best shots I have all year and some of the worst ones. I just need to bring it all together.”