I stood on the last hole and thought: Don't do a Van de Velde

The Claret Jug was just where he had left it, at the foot of the bed. It was 6am and Padraig Harrington was thrilled to discover that it had not all been just a wondrous dream.

He turned to his wife, Caroline, and woke her to share the happy news. "Look," he said. "I'm the Open Champion." Caroline, five months pregnant, replied: "Yes, Padraig. There's the trophy, it's unbelievable. Now can we go back to sleep?"

Scroll down to read more:

After one of the great finishes

in Open history, no wonder

Harrington could not follow his wife's advice.

He had been so excited he hadn't gone to bed until 4am and here he was, still fresh as a daisy, bidding farewell to Carnoustie yesterday morning.

Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Sports Minister Seamus Brennan had been among the first to offer congratulations. There is talk of a parade to celebrate the historic achievement of becoming the first man from the Irish Republic to win a major.

"That's fine with me," Harrington said. "I'm going to be in a happy mood today, tomorrow, next week, next year, the next 10 years."

He finally left the club at 11pm on Sunday and went straight to a party thrown by his management company, IMG. Harrington is not a drinker of any quantity but he sipped out of the Claret Jug.

An appropriately fine red wine or champagne? "John Smith's Smooth, actually," he said. "It didn't go down smooth, but there you go. I was so excited I didn't need alcohol to get me flying."

At the party he was given a

timeline of the dramatic series of events that culminated in his one-stroke play-off victory over Sergio Garcia.

He was shocked to discover that

a third man, Argentine Andres Romero, had been such an integral figure.

"I was so in the zone I didn't have a clue that he had been leading the tournament, let alone by two shots," he said. "I'm not a great watcher of golf on television, but I can't wait to relive this."

He conjured a vivid image of walking across the Barry Burn, after he had just put the ball in the same hazard for a second time, by the green.

"I was counting up my shots and thinking of the seven that Jean Van de Velde had taken in 1999," he said. "I told myself to make sure I got a six, not to go down the same slippery slope."

Golfers will long recall the manner in which he eliminated the sense of panic to get up and down from 60 yards. Given the context that it ultimately earned him a play-off, it might be the most character-filled double bogey the game has ever seen.

"I play that pitch shot every day on my back lawn and I knew I could pull it off," he said. Harrington is not guilty of false modesty when he said he aspired to a journeyman's career.

Nobody looked at him and considered him a ball striker who could win The Open or rise into the world's top six.

He is testament to the virtues of hard work and the right advice, qualities he learned while absorbing the story of another Carnoustie Open champion, Ben Hogan.

Harrington said: "The guys I have admired are not those with unbelievable talent but those who worked hard at what they had.

"I look at Hogan, a struggling pro who became the best in the world and the more I hear about him the more fascinated I am. It's people like him that I have always held up as a role model."

You would not have to look far to discover why he picked Hogan. The great American has always been the idol of Harrington's coach, Bob Torrance, who has built a

distinguished teaching career based around Hogan's "modern fundamentals".

Harrington said: "I am thrilled for Bob — he is so much a part of this. He never stops thinking about my game and I can never repay him for what he has done for me. But, hopefully, he will feel that this goes part of the way."

What next? Harrington said that he would be making a conscious effort not to regard this triumph as the be-all and end-all of his career.

Mindful perhaps of the Kiwi Michael Cambell, who admitted last week that he struggled to get out of bed the first year after

winning the U.S. Open in 2005,

Harrington said: "I think Phil

Mickelson had the right idea.

"Even when he hadn't won any, he always said that he had it in mind to win more than one. If you think of

winning one as the ultimate, I don't think you're far off the end of your competitive career."

With the eight-year drought in majors now over, the 35-year-old believes he might be just the first of a number of Europeans to win one of the game's four leading prizes.

He said: "The other Europeans know their games in relation to mine. They know I'm not an intimidating force. European golf is strong and they will be thinking they can follow in my footsteps."

For now, there's only one man sleeping next to the Claret Jug. Sweet dreams, Padraig.