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"Paddy Plays Motown!"

Yes, golf's foremost Irish tenor, Padraig Harrington, teams up with his fellow competitors from the 90th PGA Championship to cover the classics from Hitsville, USA!

Featuring!

"Heat Wave" (Martha & the Vandellas, 1963) -- The mercury in suburban Detroit was half of what it was in Tulsa last year, but the high-pitched Harrington is red hot. He's won three of the last six majors, which only Tiger Woods has done in the last 25 years. Just the fourth ever to win the British Open and PGA in the same season, the Dubliner is now halfway toward the Grand Sham. If he can turn next April in Augusta into an Irish Spring, the man from the Emerald Isle will arrive at Bethpage Black in June with a chance to join Bobby Jones and Woods as the only players to win four majors in a row.

"Back in My Arms Again" (The Supremes, 1965) -- Harrington's victory gave Europe its first PGA Championship since the Hoover Administration and its first since the event changed formats, from match to stroke play, in 1958. They can have the Wanamaker Trophy; we've got Beckham.

"I Second That Emotion" (Smokey Robinson, 1967) -- A half-century after Ben Hogan brought the Monster to its knees, Oakland Hills brought what seemed like half the PGA field to the interview podium to pronounce the South Course's nearly 7,400 yards and roller coaster putting surfaces unfair. Lee Westwood suggested the PGA of America was "sucking the fun out of major championships" by setting up the course so tough. That wasn't the only thing that sucked: the scoring average the first two days was nearly 75. Westwood (77-78) was below average. Or above, depending on how you look at it.

"Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (The Temptations, 1966) -- Harrington may still be 11 majors shy of Woods, but he's now done something three times that the world's best player hasn't done once, namely come from behind on Sunday to win a major. His final round scores in his three major triumphs have been 67, 69, and 66. Still, Harrington's had help. At the 2007 Open Championship, he trailed Sergio Garcia by six entering the final round but got into a playoff when Garcia bogeyed the last to shoot 73. (Andres Romero pitched in, too, by playing the last three holes in 3 over.) At this year's Open, Greg Norman shot 39 on the back and 77 overall to open the gate wide enough for the Paddy Wagon to roll right through. And last week at Oakland Hills, both Ben Curtis and Garcia bogeyed two of their final four holes to fall from Harrington's winning total of 3 under. (It also doesn't hurt that Woods hasn't been around to get in his way.)

"Please Mr. Postman" (The Marvelettes, 1961) -- Once again, Sergio Garcia -- like the postal service -- failed to deliver on a major championship Sunday. The preliminary diagnosis of his latest major malady is asphyxiation or, as restaurant signs say in Garcia's mother tongue, "Ahogo." Even Sergio sycophants can't deny he missed short-range birdie putts at 15 and 17 and baptized his second at 16, regardless of how brilliantly he saved bogey there. It also didn't help that he missed the fairway at 18, thereby forcing him to try to make par the hard way. But on a course that surrendered precious few sub-70 scores, Garcia shot 31 on Oakland Hills' outward nine in Sunday afternoon's final round to erase a three-shot deficit and take the lead into the back nine. He played phenomenal golf for four days on an impossibly hard course just to give himself a chance to make you think he choked.

"Love Hangover" (Diana Ross, 1976) -- The last time Oakland Hills hosted a major, Davis Love had a share of the lead before III-putting the 72nd hole to finish a shot behind Steve Jones. Last week, he only played 36 holes after shooting 77-75 to miss the cut by four.

"Ben" (Michael Jackson, 1972) -- Ben Curtis, the 2003 Open Champion, hadn't made a bogey all week on Oakland Hills' back nine until the last hole of his third round Sunday morning. He took a one-shot advantage into the final round that afternoon and had a share of the lead with four holes to play before bogeys at 15 and 17 did him in. His consolation prize? Enough points to earn a spot on his first Ryder Cup team.

Yes, folks, "Paddy Plays Motown" is a Monster collection, featuring special appearances by many of your Motown favorites! Such as!

Stevie Wonder -- Curtis' upward mobility knocked Steve Stricker out of the top eight. Stricker's only hope of making his first Ryder Cup team now is to play hard over the next three weeks to impress Paul Azinger, who will announce his four captain's picks on September 2.

The Commodores -- Vanderbilt grad Brandt Snedeker, 15th in the Ryder Cup standings going into the PGA and just three off the lead before closing with 74-73, was one of a dozen or so players who missed a golden opportunity to claim one of those elite eight automatic spots. University of Kentucky alum J.B. Holmes led after 36 holes but Big Blue it Sunday when he hung a 7 on the first hole of the final round en route to an 81. At least those guys made the cut. Nos. 9 and 10, Woody Austin and Hunter Mahan, were both long gone by Sunday night. Mahan, who's been in duck-and-cover since his remarks about Ryder Cup participants being treated like "slaves" first surfaced a couple of weeks ago, will apparently be emancipated from such purported torture after throwing an 81 of his own on the board Thursday.

Gladys Knight -- Most of the field was on the practice tee by 0-dark-30 Sunday morning after round three was interrupted by inclement weather Saturday afternoon. In Sunday's more clement conditions, Harrington finished off a 66 in time to grab a quick nap before matching that score in the afternoon to win by two.

The Miracles -- I still haven't decided which was more impossible: Sergio Garcia's bulls-eye blitz of the flagstick at 15 Sunday or the fact that the ball, which fell straight down into the hole, didn't stay there. It rolled eight feet away where Garcia would miss the birdie putt. So instead of increasing his advantage over Harrington by one or two, Garcia's lead remained one, and that was gone after his soggy 5 at 16.

Sondra "Blinky" Williams -- Who says golf isn't a contact sport? Two days before the championship, Kenny Perry injured his eye removing a corrective lens. He shot 79 in the opening round Thursday but later withdrew, leaving his place in the field like his cornea -- scratched. For a variety of reasons -- ranging from ineligibility (Masters) to an unwillingness to attempt qualifying (U.S. Open) to prior commitment (Open Championship) to last week's scratch -- Perry played only 18 of a possible 288 major championship holes this year. But hindsight is 20/20, and it bears repeating that Perry accomplished his primary goal for 2008: represent country and commonwealth near his old Kentucky home next month at the Ryder Cup in Louisville.

You'll love "Paddy Plays Motown," especially after a few pints o' Guinness! But that's not all! Order today and you'll get two bonus discs!

"Sergio Sings the Blues" and "Snap, Crackle, and Pop! The 2008 U.S. Open Soundtrack."

Call now! Like they were for Tiger, operators are standing by!

Grant Boone is a husband, father, broadcaster, and journalist born in Tennessee and living in Texas. During his nearly 20 years in sports journalism, he's been heard on tape delay in pizza joints half-filled with fully-drunk beer league softball teams and around the world covering major sporting events for ESPN, Turner Sports, Golf Channel, and CBS Radio. To read past installments of Grant Me This, click here. You can contact Grant at pgagrant@hotmail.com.