HARRINGTON HANGS TOUGH FOR US SENIOR OPEN WIN
Pádraig Harrington becomes a multiple winner of the US Senior Open after winning for the second time in four years (Photo: USGA/Logan Whitton)
TOUR NEWS - PGA CHAMPIONS TOUR/AP
Pádraig Harrington came out on top of a major championship that felt more like match play, closing his round Sunday with seven straight pars at the US Senior Open to top Stewart Cink by one shot.
Playing alongside Cink for the fourth straight day, Harrington shot three-under 67 to finish at 11-under 269 on the tricky, heavily sloping Broadmoor. The Dubliner sealed this match by hitting his approach to eight feet on 18, putting pressure on Cink, who trailed by one but sat 30 yards in front of him on the fairway.
Cink's approach landed on the precipice of a ledge, but spun backward and didn't come to rest until it was 35 feet away to set up a two-putt. That made it advantage Harrington, who also two-putted to seal the win, though the last laugh went to the Broadmoor course in Colorado Springs.
Minutes earlier, Cink had looks from inside of six feet to tie on 16 and 17. The one on 16 slid to the left, the one on 17 burned the edge and stayed right. Cink, who hit more greens over 72 holes than anyone (64), but downplayed the importance of that on this course, turned out to be right.
It really is the putter that matters. Cink needed two more than Harrington on the fourth day of their showdown - the difference between winning and losing.
“It was tension filled. All day it was tight and close,” said Harrington after the win. “On 18, I said to my caddie Ronan, I said, look, if I birdie this hole, I win. It takes all the permutations out of it. Ronan then said something to me, reminded me of something that Hale Irwin told me over the years. He said, always hit the shot you would hit if you're one shot behind, and that kind of gave good clarity to what I was going to do.
Harrington was delighted to be able to celebrate with family on this occasion. “It's brilliant when you get to celebrate with your family, especially my wife is here and one of my kids is here. The other is watching from around the world.
“But it's really nice because, as much as I've won tournaments back in the day, I didn't get to enjoy the experience with my kids. They were there for some of them, but they were only little. Now they understand it.
“I suppose that's another great thing about the Champions Tour and the Senior Tour. It gives us this opportunity to relive our past glories.
Harrington won his second US Senior Open title in four years, adding that to a trophy case that also includes The Open in 2007 and 2008, plus the 2008 PGA Championship.
The only player who threatened to get in the mix in this two-man show was Miguel Angel Jiménez. After opening with bogey, Jiménez made eight bridies to pull within a shot of the lead.
But he yanked his tee shot well left on 18, had to punch out and made bogey. He still shot the best round of the tournament, a six-under 64, and finished in third, two shots back.
The other player in the Cink-Harrington group - players teed off in threesomes to beat the weather - was Mark Hensby.
Celebrating his 54th birthday, Hensby couldn't conjure any of the magic that led to 19 birdies over the first three days and a share of the lead. He only made two on Sunday and shot 73 to tie for fourth on five under with Thomas Bjørn.
Harrington's signature shot was his last birdie of the day - a 12-footer on 11 that put him at 11 under. It was a straight-in look, one of the very few anyone gets on this golf course.
But really, it might have come less than 24 hours earlier when he chipped in from 20 yards off the green for a birdie that tied him with Cink heading into the final day, setting them up with the same tee time for the fourth straight time and setting up a match-play scene that came down to the final shot.