There had been several near-misses of course. Harrington himself missed the four-man play-off – which did feature France’s Thomas Levet – at Muirfield in 2002 by a shot after a bogey on the 72nd hole, while Thomas Bjorn blew the 2003 Open at Sandwich by dropping four shots in three holes late in the final round.

Colin Montgomerie also came agonisingly close to winning the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot only to run up a double-bogey six on the 72nd hole, an unwanted feat matched by Harrington but in the Irishman’s case, which proved not to be fatal.

Garcia is the latest European star to have to cope with letting a major title slip from his grasp after starting the final day with a three-shot lead, but McGinley insisted: “The big thing was we had a European winner.

“The press will no longer go on about it.

“The Irish press have been going on for so long about when we were going to get an Irish winner of the Irish Open and Padraig has done that (in a play-off at Adare Manor in May).

“The next thing was a European winner of a major and Padraig has done that now. He is knocking down the hurdles one after the other and all credit to him.”

McGinley was joint third with Harrington going into the final round, only to fade to 19th with a closing 73, but the Dubliner had something to celebrate today after receiving a late invitation to the USPGA Championship in Tulsa next month.

Darren Clarke has also been invited and it means all 12 of Ian Woosnam’s Ryder Cup team from last September will be playing in the final major of the season.

“What a delightful shock,” added McGinley, a lowly 152nd in the world, ahead of the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship which gets under way in Hamburg tomorrow.

“The invitation could not have come at a better time because I feel my game is turning round again. It’s a great confidence-booster.”

The enthralling finish at Carnoustie finally drew attention away from the other burning issue of last week, that of players taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Gary Player claimed he “knows for a fact” that players are taking drugs while Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, welcomed Player’s comments and urged the game’s authorities to introduce testing as soon as possible.

The comments were met with incredulity by the players at Carnoustie, in particular Player’s fellow South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, and Sweden’s Niclas Fasth today added his thoughts on the matter.

Asked if he had any experience of doping, Fasth said: “Nothing more than rumours, and that was years ago. And it wasn’t the European Tour.

“It would be just as bad if people used performance-enhancing drugs in golf as in any other sport. And it would be hugely disappointing having a tough battle down the last few holes with someone who you knew or thought was taking drugs to help them out, when you really want the strongest man to win.

“It’s never happened to me that I’m aware of, but I’ll be hugely disappointed. I think drug testing has as much a place in golf as in any other sport.

“However, more in golf than other sports you catch a lot of innocent people simply taking medicines, and that would be devastating for the people involved.

“It’s very likely whoever was doing it deliberately would really know what he was doing and you catch some innocent guys just taking medicines and perhaps not knowing it.”

Meanwhile, Germany’s Bernhard Langer was forced to pull out of the tournament with a stomach complaint.