Without Harrington's presence high on the leaderboard, yesterday's FA Cup final would have been the only show in town.

Such is the fragile nature of this tournament since its gradual decline from the salad days of the 1980s. But when Harrington declares that his national championship is the fifth most important event in his personal pecking order after the four majors, no one believes he is engaging in some gentle PR.

His desire to capture this title was probably epitomised by his third round performance. Following Friday's seemingly effortless stroll around a brutally difficult course in gusting wind and rain, this time he might even have been trying a touch too hard.

There was just one stroke, but as many as 284 places on the world rankings, separating Harrington from his nearest challenger, England's Simon Wakefield, and after a confident birdie at the first hole, you might have expected a procession, but by the eighth hole, he had lost his lead to the unheralded Wakefield. If the conditions . . . a zephyr-like breeze of just 20mph . . . were less severe than earlier in the week, and if the course had once again been reduced in length to preserve the players' sanity, Adare was still a punishing test as Harrington struggled to find the range off the tee.

With Bradley Dredge, whose 69 was the only score under 70 yesterday, the early leader in the clubhouse, Harrington had soon restored some order to the proceedings as he edged two strokes clear of Dredge and Wakefield.

Fortunately for the large galleries, there was also an impressive move from Damien McGrane who forced his way into the top 10 with a fine 70 for a one-over-par total of 217. A round which featured some laser-like putting looked like foundering for a moment when he double-bogeyed the 14th hole, but McGrane responded emphatically with two birdies in succession.

When Gary Murphy covered the front nine in two under par, he too was well in the mix, however, his journey home only included two pars and the resultant 73 left him two shots adrift of McGrane on 219.

If the challenge mounted by Murphy and McGrane boosted the patriotic mood, there was no such surge from either Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell or David Higgins who all fell back into the pack.

"The quality I can produce is just not there, " said McGinley. "The course is playable, but you come here and you're punished by the weather. To an extent, Padraig is saving the tournament. He blew away half the field on Friday, I just wish it was me."

There has been a symmetry about the main golf tournaments in this country over the past year. Last season's Irish Open, European Open and the Ryder Cup all had something in common. It didn't matter whether it was May, July or late September, the weather was atrocious.

So based on those damp, windblown experiences, there had to be a reasonable chance that this event would suffer as well. Asked about the conditions earlier in the week, Lee Westwood shrugged his shoulders, looked at the sky and cut to the chase: "This golf course is in Ireland, not in Florida."

Westwood could also have mentioned that with only two of the world's top-50 players here this week, the difficulty of the golf course . . . even in yesterday's slightly easier conditions - has been disproportionate to the quality of the field.

It was probably understandable that Adare's owner, Tom Kane, decided to stretch his course following the 2005 JP McManus Invitational pro-am. Kane has always had designs on a championshipstandard lay-out with all the necessary bells and whistles, and once Harrington posted his 63 in the second round of McManus's fundraiser, it was certain that Adare would be given added muscle.

In an effort to defuse the frustration here, tournament director, David Probyn, has taken advantage of the many teeing grounds to reduce the length of course in every round. In fact, yesterday, he lopped as much as 420 yards off the card to leave Adare measuring just over 7,000 yards.

But while the course has been made shorter, and more playable, Probyn has not been able to do anything about the rough which in places has been of US Open proportions.

It beggars belief that the rough was allowed to become so penal when the field was always going to be relatively modest.

There may have been some diplomatic words about the way the demands of the course were preparing players for major championships, however, it is doubtful if spectators, referred to by McGrane as the "lifeblood of the Irish Open", want to pay good money to watch tournament professionals hacking it out of the cabbage and putting for pars.

We went into yesterday with just seven players under par, and when on Friday, the unknown Spaniard, Rafael Cabrera Bello, managed to shoot a 69, he moved a staggering 100 places up the leaderboard. Cabrera Bello's round was highly impressive in the fearsome conditions, but at a run-of-the-mill European Tour event, a 69 should never make such a dramatic difference.

It is no secret that the Irish Open needs all the positive publicity it can get following several years in the doldrums, and while Adare is undoubtedly a superb venue, growing the rough is hardly one of the answers to the event's travails.

When birdies and eagles might have set the galleries alight, they have been watching what for the most part amounts to a series of 0-0 draws. Even if a stalemate can be fascinating for the discerning viewer, four scoreless draws in a row is surely too much to take.

So, praise be for Padraig Harrington. He is this year's x-factor, the tournament's saviour. Without his determined quest to become the first Irish player since John O'Leary in 1982 to win this title, the temptation to stay warm and dry and to watch yesterday's FA Cup final would have been far too great for everyone.