After Sergio Garcia won the Masters, everybody was excited for him. Well almost everybody. Irishman Padraig Harrington was not as on board as everyone else. You may have seen his comments about Garcia, a former rival and foe.

"It's very simple. Myself and Sergio have been on tour as long as each other," said Harrington after the Masters. "We would have been the opposite. His is a very flamboyant game, everything comes easy. There were periods he never practiced. We were such opposites. I worked at it, grinded it out. Got the best out of it. 

"I'm very strong on the etiquette of the game, so I don't tolerate people spitting in the hole, throwing their shoes or throwing golf clubs. That would be my attitude. And it would be quite clear where I came from. Then we went into the majors and I obviously I beat him at the majors and I gave him every out I possibly could. I gave him every out I possibly could have at the 2007 Open."

Harrington beat Garcia in a playoff after coming from six down in the final round to tie him at Royal Birkdale in 2007.

"I was as polite as I could and was as generous as I could be, but he was a very sore loser," Harrington said. "And he continued to be a very sore loser."

So that is something. But Harrington also added that he was thrilled to see Garcia finally get his first major championship.

"I was delighted to see the emotion on the 18th green," Harrington said. "Maybe I am a bit harsh with the fact that I look and say, well, everything comes easy to Sergio. But clearly it hasn't come easy to Sergio. You could see in that moment in time that he has paid his dues. I might have had a chip on my shoulder about that. 

"Had Sergio paid his dues? I suppose he was a bigger star than he was performer. He has definitely paid his dues now. I could see it in his emotion. The genuine emotion and the thrill of winning, I could see that as a competitor and appreciate that. I was very happy for him, no doubt about it, in that moment." 

So there is a lot going on in those comments. Harrington both criticized but also praised Garcia for what he accomplished. It reads ... interestingly. But Harrington said recently that when the pair met up at Rory McIlroy's wedding in Northern Ireland last week, Garcia was kind to him.

"I would say to you that right now at this very moment, my relationship with Sergio is the best it has ever been," Harrington told the Irish Golf Desk.

"We have had a chat because clearly there was an elephant in the room about what I said, and we have decided that we will look going forward at our similarities and the good in each of us rather than any other way," Harrington said. "We are in a great place. If anything, it has worked out for the better. It's a situation that had to be dealt with and it was dealt with. Myself and Sergio are on a much better footing than we have ever been."

"He had looked into the detail of the interview and he had understood that I was actually saying, 'Wow, hadn't he served his time. He deserved this and you could see it.' As I said, there are a lot of similarities between myself and Sergio that we have to embrace rather than look the other way and I think that that's what we've looked at."

Good on Garcia for taking the high road here and on Harrington for putting it to bed. The European Ryder Cup team will feature both of them in some manner over the next decade -- whether they are captaining or playing -- and it will be stronger because of this.

Garcia in particular has struck me as being in an unbelievable place in his life. Gone is the petulance and the silliness. They have been replaced by a mature, thoughtful, genuine and humorous golfer who has stepped gracefully into the shoes of an international superstar major winner. 

This is ultimately a winding story with a solid ending that both men made happen with a slight assist from McIlroy.