No, because that would have cast a negative light upon himself and he doesn’t do that. Instead, he pointed out that a young man took so long to rake two bunkers at the 18^th green, that he lost his rhythm standing in the fairway for “15 minutes.”

“Having to wait . . . doesn’t help when you’re trying to win the British Open,” said Garcia.

He could have caught himself and considered that the young man raking the bunker was a volunteer, without whom golf tournaments big and small would not exist, but, of course, he didn’t. He’s too self-absorbed for that, which is why we should be thankful that players like Harrington are around.

The Irishman spent time in his moment of glory to thank volunteers during his speech to accept the claret jug.

It should have been Garcia delivering that speech, of course. No doubt about that. The 27-year-old had played brilliantly from the outset, the best player in the field. With a three-shot lead and knowing Tiger Woods — the man who blitzed him in last year’s British Open finale — sitting eight back, Garcia had control of the championship. It was his to lose — and he did just that.

He lost it by shooting 38 on the front, when he merely needed to shoot 36. He lost it by shooting 73 when he merely needed to shoot 71 or 72. He lost it by missing putts that for three days had gone in. To Garcia, this was inexplicable, because they were good putts — heck, they were great putts — and he spent all day looking at his ball hit pieces of the cup, only to spit out.

Had he ever experienced a putting day like that, he was asked.

“Obviously, you haven’t been watching me much. You only watch the guys who make the putts and get the good breaks and things like that.”

Such childish talk. He works in a profession where the huge majority of his colleagues struggle to keep their cards, thrilled to simply get the occasional chance to get into the hunt to win. Let’s take Woods out of the equation here, and the same with Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson; if a guy wins once a year it’s a terrific year, and going three or four years, maybe more, without a win is the norm.

So what’s with Garcia using the British Open forum to suggest everyone gets breaks but him? He’s thrown shoes during competition, dropped a huge wad of spit into a hole after missing a putt, humiliated rules officials, and insinuated US Golf Association officials made him play in a rainstorm that they would have stopped play for had Woods been on the course.

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At 27, it had been hoped that he’d have outgrown this stuff, but no. He remains petulant as ever.

Garcia hasn’t won since 2005, which is hard to believe given his outrageous skills. Instead of searching for a reason why he has played so poorly in so many fourth rounds, he blames youngsters raking bunkers and bad breaks, as if bad breaks haven’t been part of the game since Old Tom Morris taught Young Tom Morris how to swing the hickory.

Garcia should know better.

The sad part is, he probably doesn’t.

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