Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. ? The short putt went to the right in the fading light — just the break Padraig Harrington needed.

The Irishman won the Honda Classic for his first PGA Tour title when Vijay Singh missed a 2 1/2-foot putt to bogey the second playoff hole.

“I thought it was a gimme,” Harrington said.

“I shouldn’t have missed,” Singh said.

If Harrington was lucky, he was also due — he has been a runner-up 26 times in worldwide events. And he earned the victory Sunday by shooting a 9-under-par 63 in the final round to erase a seven-shot deficit.

Ranked eighth in the world, Harrington is believed to be the first player from the Republic of Ireland to win a tour event. An assistant to Irish President Mary McAleese phoned with congratulations, and Harrington said he knew his countrymen were watching the tournament on TV.

“I’m sure I kept a few pubs open tonight,” the Dublin native said. “It’s very good to be the first Irishman. Nobody can take that away from me.”

Later Sunday, Irishman Des Smyth won the SBC Classic in California for his first Champions Tour title.

Joe Ogilvie also made the playoff, but was eliminated when he bogeyed the first extra hole, missing the fairway and needing four shots to reach the green.

The par-4 No. 18 was used for both playoff holes, and Harrington scrambled to get up-and-down for par each time. Singh, meanwhile, uncharacteristically failed on the verge of victory.

He missed a 15-foot birdie try on the first playoff hole that would have given him the victory. After Harrington made a four-foot putt to par the second extra hole, Singh pushed his par try, and the ball rimmed out.

Harrington broke into a surprised grin.

“It was a shock,” he said. “It’s nice when somebody does that, considering how many times I’ve been close and it has been taken away from me.”

Singh declined to appear in the media interview room, but spoke briefly to a network TV reporter.

“I was a little disappointed,” he said. “I hit that putt a little too hard. I should have just rolled it in. It was straight-down grain. Obviously, you can’t miss putts like that in the playoff.”

Singh’s defeat came one week after his six-month reign atop the world rankings ended when Tiger Woods overtook him by winning the Ford Championships at Doral. Singh had no chance to regain No. 1 at the Honda and remains ranked second behind Woods, who skipped the tournament.