Pádraig Harrington will need to produce something extra special in the final round of the Champions Tour’s Charles Schwab Championship if he’s to get his hands on the top prize in the season-long race.
The three-time major winner finds himself eight shots adrift of Bernhard Langer after shooting a two-under 69 on moving day that effectively left him stuck in neutral.
And he’ll be particularly disappointed because he got off to his hottest start of the week by birdieing the first, third and fourth holes to immediately make inroads to the deficit he was facing. But bogeys on five and eight, punctuated by a birdie on seven had him back at -2 at the turn, and a bogey on 13 and closing birdie on 18 saw him reach the clubhouse on that number and he remains tied for ninth and on-course to end the season fourth in the rankings.
“Squandered a good start,” was how Harrington summed up the day in a post on ‘X’. “Just was out of position too often.”
Bernhard Langer shot his age once again to put himself in position to extend his PGA TOUR Champions winning streak to 18 years.
The 67-year-old German star with a Champions Tour-record 46 career victories had a four-under 67 on Saturday at Phoenix Country Club to take a one-stroke lead into the final round. He has shot his age or better 22 times on the tour.
“I’ve got to continue to play aggressive and hit as many fairways as I possibly can and as many greens,” Langer said. “The key for me is making putts. I’ve got to try and hit 15, 16, 17 greens in regulation if I can and make a bunch of putts.”
He has fought back after tearing his left Achilles playing pickleball in February.
“It would mean a great deal because of what I’ve been through this year,” Langer said. “And also, I didn’t win this year. It’s the first time in my Champions Tour career that I didn’t win in a season. So yeah, there will be a little extra effort tomorrow.”
Defending champion Steven Alker, second behind Ernie Els in the season standings, was second after a 63 — poised to pass Els for the $1 million bonus. Els was tied for 14th after a 71.
“The whole goal was to defend the championship this week and, if I do that, then the Schwab Cup’s a bonus,” Alker said.
Alker had a run of five straight birdies, but closed with six straight pars.
Richard Green was third at 11-under after a 63. Alex Cejka had a 68 to get to 10-under, and Jerry Kelly was nine-under after a 66.
Stewart Cink, three strokes ahead after each of the first two rounds, shot a 75 to drop to eight-under.
Darren Clarke suffered a disappointing final third of his round having made two early birdies and reached the turn at -2 for the day and -3 overall. A double bogey on the par-3 13th was followed by bogeys on 14, 15 and 17 as he covered his final six in +5 and slips back to T27 at +2.
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