CARNOUSTIE, Scotland - Anywhere else, Padraig Harrington might have walked off the 18th green knowing his two shots that found the bottom of Barry Burn for double bogey had cost him the British Open.

Not at Carnoustie, where calamity can strike at any second and did during Sunday’s final round.

One shot crashed off the stone wall of the burn and ricocheted 50 yards across the wrong fairway and out-of-bounds. Another bounced across a tiny bridge until it plunged over the side on the last hop. Still another looked like a hole-in-one until it smacked the base of the pin and caromed 18 feet away.

The final hour was golf theater at its best.

In a nail-biter that stirred memories of Jean Van de Velde’s famous collapse in 1999, Harrington delivered the fitting finish to a day that kept everyone guessing. He took a two-shot lead to the final hole of a playoff, and still had to sweat out a 3-foot bogey putt to beat Sergio Garcia.

“I know it was only a short putt, but the emotions of it,” Harrington said. “I couldn’t believe it as it was rolling in from right in the middle of the hole, and I’m thinking, ’The Open champion.’ A huge amount of it was genuine shock.”

It was equally shocking to Garcia.

He was poised to capture his first major championship until he blew a three-shot lead in the final round. Harrington gave him one more chance with that double bogey on the 18th hole in regulation. Needing a par to win, Garcia hit into a bunker and missed a 10-foot par putt.

“Now, if Sergio parred the last and I did lose, I think I would have struggled to come back out and be a competitive golfer,” Harrington said. “It meant that much to me. But I never let it sink into me that I had just thrown away the Open championship.”

Harrington vs. Garcia      A hole-by-hole look at the British Open playoff Sunday between Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington: No. 1, 406 yards, par 4: Harrington hit iron to the fairway. Garcia hit iron into the first cut. Garcia’s approach came up short into the bunker. Harrington hits 7-iron to 8 feet left of the flag. Garcia blasted out to just on the green, 12 feet away and missed the par putt. Harrington made his for birdie. Harrington 3, Garcia 5. ——— No. 16, 248 yards par 3: Harrington pulled his tee shot left of the green, down a swale about 60 feet away. Garcia’s tee shot never left the flag and struck the base of the pin after two hops and bounced 18 feet away. Harrington hit a putter up the slope to 3 feet away and made the par putt. Garcia left his birdie putt short and tapped in. Harrington 3 (6), Garcia 5 (8). ——— No. 17, 461 yards, par 4: Harrington and Garcia both hit iron off the tee to the fairway. Harrington’s approach landed 6 feet beyond the hole, while Garcia hit toward the middle of the green, stopping 18 feet away. Garcia missed his birdie putt to the left, and Harrington also made par when he missed his putt to the left. Harrington 4 (10), Garcia 4 (12). ——— No. 18, 499 yards, par 4: Harrington plays it safe off the tee, using an iron to keep his ball in the fairway short of Barry Burn. Garcia goes with his driver and winds up in the rough along the left side. Harrington lays up short of the burn, then hits a wedge to about 35 feet. Garcia reaches the green with a 6-iron from 203 yards, but his 20-foot putt slides across the left edge of the cup and he settles for par. Harrington makes a 3-footer for bogey to win the British Open. Harrington 5, (15), Garcia 4 (16).

He became the first Irishman in 60 years with his name on the claret jug, and Harrington ended Europe’s eight-year drought in the majors. The victory moved him up to No. 6 in the world, part of the elite.

All because of a double bogey on the 72nd hole.

Harrington looked as though he might get the break of a lifetime when his tee shot dribbled across the bridge, a yard away from safety until it dove over the railing. After taking a penalty drop, he hung his head when his 5-iron bounced into the burn.

It was a sick feeling, the same one Van de Velde surely felt when he hit into the same stream. Harrington gave no thought to removing his shoes and stepping into the burn. Instead, he figured out how to get up and down for double bogey. He pitched to 5 feet behind the hole and made perhaps the biggest putt of the round.

“That was probably the most pressure-filled putt I had of the day,” Harrington. “If I missed it, it was the end of it. And to hole it was a great boost to me. That was a moment that I thought, ’Now maybe things are going to go my way.”’

He never gave Garcia another chance.

Harrington hit 7-iron into 6 feet for birdie on the first of four playoff holes, while Garcia dumped his shot into a bunker and couldn’t get up and down to fall two shots behind. Garcia must have known it was over with two holes remaining when, on the next hole, his 3-iron at the 248-yard 16th hopped twice and appeared to be going in until the pin knocked it away.

“You know what’s the saddest thing about it? It’s not the first time. It’s not the first time, unfortunately,” Garcia said. “I don’t know. I’m playing against a lot of guys out there, more than the field.”

The guy should really have been moaning was Andres Romero, a 26-year-old Argentine who looked as if he might be the next unlikely champion at Carnoustie. He made 10 birdies, including four in a row to give himself a two-shot lead, when the pressure caught up to him and a bad break followed.

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From the right rough on the 17th, his 2-iron was headed for the burn when it ricocheted off the stone walls and shot out-of-bounds, just beyond the fence on the other side of the 18th fairway. He did well to make double bogey, and his 12-foot par putt on the final hole hit the back of the cup and spun away.

“I did it on 17, not 18,” Romero said when asked if he would be linked to Van de Velde. “But I could be put into that category by some. I certainly wasn’t thinking about Jean Van de Velde at that moment.”

As it all wrapped up, a rainbow stretched over the course by the North Sea, capping another magical day on perhaps the toughest links in golf. Like the last Open at Carnoustie, there was chaos in the end.

Only this time, it involved more than one player.

Van de Velde self-destructed all on his own in 1999, blowing a three-shot lead on the final hole with a shot that caromed off a tiny railing in the grandstand, another one into the burn, another in the bunker.

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Eight years later, the bad luck belonged to Romero, the bad bounce went to Harrington. That left only bad timing for Garcia.

It was his third time to play in the final group of a major, this time with Tiger Woods out of the picture early. But the 27-year-old Spaniard couldn’t buy a putt, and he couldn’t get a break.

He closed with a 73, joining Harrington in the playoff at 7-under 277. The winning score was 13 shots lower than it was the last time at Carnoustie, but everything else — especially the final holes — was eerily similar.