US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: FOR ANY player with genuine major aspirations, the reality check comes on a Sunday after you've put the ball into the tin cup on the 18th green - the 72nd hole - and made the walk to the recorder's hut to a background harmony of players' names still being introduced on the first tee.

It provided proof, if it weren't already embedded in the golfer's mind, that the job has finished far too early.

Pádraig Harrington caught such a reality check yesterday, as his interest in the 108th US Open finished with a 71, for nine-over-par 293.

While Tiger Woods's pursuers Lee Westwood, Rocco Mediate, and Geoff Ogilvy were fine-tuning for their finest hour on the putting green, Pádraig was scribbling his signature to the card of DA Points - a journeyman professional who has laboured between the Nationwide Tour and the US Tour - and moving his thought processes ahead to the next major, his defence of the British Open at Royal Birkdale next month.

Yet, unlike on Saturday, when his third round post-mortem after a 77 was a bit like a confessional - as he talked of "trying too hard" and remarked: "I shouldn't put myself under so much stress to do everything correctly, I don't have to be near perfect (on every shot)" - there was a much more content demeanour to Harrington, undoubtedly helped by the fact that he finished his round by shooting birdie on three of the last five holes.

Although the six-stroke improvement from Saturday to Sunday was indicative of the topsy-turvy nature of Harrington's US Open - combined rounds of 78-67-77-71 - there were enough positives coming in, which featured birdies at the 14th, 15th and the 18th, to have a smile rather than a grimace creasing his facial features.

That birdie on the 14th, where the tee had been moved forward to make for a drivable Par 4, proved to be the catalyst for a late charge that at least moved Harrington towards a top-40 finishing position to follow on from his tied-fifth finish at the Masters.

His next major? The defence of his British Open at Royal Birkdale in July.

On the 14th hole yesterday, Harrington's three-wood off the tee finished just over the back of the green, mere inches from the water hazard at the back.

"If that had dropped in the back water, I'd have . . . that would have been my week alright," he later remarked.

The ball held onto the grassy bank, and he proceeded to make a birdie that was followed by a 40-footer on the 15th and, then, after he had reached the par-five 18th green in two, a finishing birdie in front of the packed grandstands.

"It's always nice to finish like that . . . you know, I played nicely early on but didn't get the putts and then struggled and made a few bogeys.

"Thankfully, I got a few breaks (coming in) and made a few birdies. Somewhere between the two would be nice."

Of the week, Harrington was unsure if he felt frustration or disappointment.

"I don't really know what to think," he replied. "I don't walk away feeling like I have to change anything with my game. I just need to stay patient, and wait for it to be my turn again.

"Sometimes circumstances on the course, whether the ball drops in or you get the right break here or there, helps.

"I would have said I worked hard and stayed reasonably good all week. But there is certainly an element of trying too hard at times and, you know, after I made mistakes I didn't recover very well.

"Anytime I hit a slack shot, I felt like I made bogey. And I sometimes made bogey after not hitting a bad shot.

"So, obviously on day two and also at the end of this round everything went my way. I just have to hang around and wait for tournaments like that."

Harrington's next outing is at the European Open, in three weeks' time.

Until then, he observed: "I will sit back when I have a bit of time and appraise my mental side and my attitude and those areas of my game. I would say I pretty much got it right all week - it just wasn't my week.

"I hit an awful lot of good putts that stayed on the high side. But you've got to hit them on the high side on these greens.

"Another week I'd be dropping a few more putts. I will have a sit-down and look back at it, but as of this moment there is nothing to change at all."

Harrington finished his round just as the third-from-last pairing of DJ Trahan and Hunter Mahan were walking onto the first tee . . . yet, by the time Tiger Woods - whose birdie-eagle finish in Saturday's third round had given him a one-stroke lead over Lee Westwood in the final pairing - had limped off the first green, there was an air of something unusual hanging in the air around San Diego.

In each of his previous 13 major wins, Woods had started the final round either as sole leader or in the share of the lead.

But a double bogey on the first - where Woods pulled his drive left and then twice hit tree branches in failing to reach the green in four - followed by a bogey on the second meant Woods's lead had suddenly evaporated.

Meanwhile, with the USGA reducing the length by some 400 yards to 7,280 to encourage aggressive play, Heath Slocum shot a final round of 65 to demonstrate to those who started the day chasing Woods that it was possible to go low.

Like Harrington, Phil Mickelson - playing on his hometown course - finished his round with three birdies in the last five holes for a 68 and 290.

Going out, though, Mickelson knew that his race had been run. "I just tried to play a good round, to use it as a stepping stone to (next month's) the British Open.

"I'm going to take three weeks off and get ready for a long stretch through the rest of the year."

He added: "I'm disappointed I didn't play well (for four days) but I'm not disappointed the way this championship has been staged. I think it's been the best, fairest set-up ever."