The Offaly native finished sixth, five shots behind the impressive Xander Schauffele, and revealed that Pádraig Harrington waited more than three hours for him to cross the finish line on Saturday night, when he shot a 77 in horrendous weather conditions to put up a tough fight to win his second Claret Jug.

“Yeah, Padraig was there,” he said of the scene in the players’ lounge on Saturday night. “Padraig was trying to give his positive speech and I was trying not to listen. (Laughs)

“I said to the boys, I said, that’s why I don’t miss Paddy on the Tour. He’s not there full-time anymore. I just miss him so much because of his positivity and what a good person he is.

“But yeah, it definitely helped last night. I wasn’t accepting any help. I turned my phone off and just tried to be with the people around me and go out and do the best I could today and that’s what I did.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t good enough.”

Harrington shot 72 from four overs to tie for 22nd place, his best finish at The Open since 2015.

“He had his team with him, and we sat around for a while and talked about everything,” Harrington said of their Saturday night conversation.

“I guess he didn’t need me and I wasn’t supposed to be there, but you know me; I’m ready to teach anyone a lesson.”