Padraig Harrington may have missed out on the British Open title but the mischievous Irishman showed how much the Claret Jug means to him by stealing the trophy from current holder Stewart Cink.
American Cink had brought the suitcase containing the trophy into a dressing room before the Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta and left it outside his locker Allowing Harrington, who won the Open Championship in 2007 and 2008, the opportunity to play a prank on Cink by hiding the famous trophy in his own locker. “I met with PGA Tour to do an interview before I came down here, and I looked in my locker and saw that the jug was gone, so I assumed they had gotten it and put it on their set,” Cink told the PGA Tour Web site. “I said, ‘So you guys already have the Claret Jug’ And they said, ‘No.’ but then the locker room attendant came over, and said ‘Mr. Harrington played a joke on you.
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“I think Harrington walked in and saw the case – not the jug, but the case. A lot of people don’t know what’s in there but he knew.” Cink added: “I couldn’t find it, I guess he only had it for two years, so he wanted to have it just a little bit longer! “So he decided to take it from me. I’ve only had it for two months. He took it from me and put it in his own locker. But if he wants to borrow it, I’ll allow him to borrow it,” Cink added. The 36-year-old continued: “It’s in the clubhouse. I’m going to leave it in there. I brought it out here for the whole week, and I’m going to leave it here for a little while, for a few more weeks.”
