Pádraig Harrington is going to have to do it the hard way if he’s to win the PGA Champions Tour’s season-ending Charles Schwab Championship and with it, the Charles Schwab Cup as the number-one ranked player on the tour.
An opening one-under round of 70 leaves the Dubliner tied for 11th and six shots adrift, but needing a victory to overtake Ernie Els, Stephen Alker and Stephen Ames at the top of the rankings, he faces an uphill task.
Waywardness off the tee was an issue on day one, hitting just four of 14 fairways and 12 of 18 greens. A birdie at the par-5 opener was a promising start, but from there, he’d trade a single bogey with another birdie on the front side to make the turn at -1.
A three-putt bogey on the par-3 13th saw him slip back to level-par, but he took advantage of the short 16th to get back in red figures and that’s the way he’d stay.
“Struggled a bit today,” the three-time 2024 Tour winner tweeted after his round. “I shot 70 for 1 under, T11, 6 shots back. I was slightly out of position a lot and I was very tentative on the greens. I’ll need to improve over the next three days to catch up.”
Harrington is one of 11 players who have a chance to win the overall race this week, and one of six who holds his destiny in his own hands as a tournament win would guarantee a number-one finish, but he’s got six shots to claw back on Stewart Cink who made eight birdies and a solitary bogey on his way to a seven-under 64 that leaves him three clear.
“I just kept plugging,” Cink said. “I wasn’t on with every part of my game, but my attitude was great, stayed in the present and just been working really hard on not getting too emotionally invested in the rounds and just letting it unfold.”
The 51-year-old, who won his first Champions Tour title at the Ally Challenge in August, can’t win the overall race as he entered the week in 12th place, but KJ Choi in second can. The Korean came into the week in seventh and would need to win and see Schwab Cup leader Ernie Els finish outside the top five.
Choi sits on -4, one ahead of the trio of Paul Broadhurst, Jerry Kelly and Stephen Ames. Canadian Ames is another danger man to Els’ crown, but the ‘Big Easy’ is hot on his tail and opened with a round of -2 to take a share of sixth and remain on course for the $1 million bonus.
Darren Clarke is also in action in Arizona, and it was an up-and-down day for the Dungannon man who carded four birdies – including two in the last three holes – and four bogeys to sign for a level-par 71 that leaves him tied for 18th.
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