Harrington rules out a hat-trick

Padraig Harrington wrote off his chances of a third successive major after taking a nightmare nine on one hole at Augusta National.

The quadruple bogey came on the long second and was only one short of the record high score at the hole in Masters history, leaving the The Open and US PGA champion knowing his five birdies that followed were never going to be enough after starting the day already seven adrift.

"Obviously my chances went then," Harrington said. "These things happen in the game and you can't do much about it."

While Harrington signed for a 73 and one-under aggregate, American Kenny Perry, at 48 trying to become the oldest major champion in history, and Angel Cabrera lead the way at 12 under par.

Reflecting on his second-hole nine the Irishman added: "I didn't really think the second shot was a gamble, but there was a root in front of the ball and as I went to hit I backed off a bit.

"I wasn't concerned about the tree until then, but it came off the club a bit right.

"I'm not really disappointed and I was not deflated at all. It was a 'so be it' sort of thing. I would not in any way say I have full control over my destiny.

"It wasn't to be. It's the nature of the game - my game any way. I'll build up to the US Open now.

"I'm really gutted about how I chipped, though. I'm really not happy about that - you can't afford to give shots away and there were three easy ones I made a dog's dinner of."

Leading Europeans were Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, round in 68 and 70 respectively to be joint eighth. But at four under they were eight behind.