Pádraig Harrington finds himself two shots back on a star-studded leaderboard at Congressional going into the final round of the Senior PGA Championship.
On another day where the cold, windy conditions made scoring tough, Harrington hung tough to play his opening nine holes in level-par thanks to two birdies in the middle of the front side that cancelled out bogeys at each end, and he twice followed bogeys with immediate birdies on the back to reach the 17th tee at level for the day and one shy of the lead.
A double bogey there after he “got a little bit too aggressive from the lie” in the greenside rough proved costly, but he bounced back again with a birdie at the last to boost his chances of overtaking the leaders on Sunday from -3, two shots back.
“I’m happy to be two shots back,” Harrington said. “I felt it could be worse. I made a few nice birdies at times out there. Wasn’t great off the tee, wasn’t great with my putting. It kind of left me on edge most of the day.
“Yeah, a little bit disappointed to not birdie 16, double 17. I certainly could have finished a little stronger. But being only two shots back, there’s a lot of people in play, but at least I’m within two of the lead.
“I haven’t really thought too much about my round, to be honest. Just tried to play. With the wind, sometimes it’s good that you just play each hole as it comes.”
His approach to Sunday’s final round will be entirely weather dependent, he admits.
“It really depends on the wind. I don’t know what the forecast — if it’s as windy as this, it would be hard for anybody to go away. If it’s not windy, there’s so many people up there, somebody is going to shoot 66, 65.
“Yeah, you’ve got to expect if it’s a nice day tomorrow, nine-under par. Somebody is going to shoot a good score. There’s so many people up there.
“Hopefully tomorrow I drive it like I drove it the first day, which was great, and hole a few putts.”
Darren Clarke’s chances faded with a four-over 76 that dropped him to +1 overall, but it’s a who’s who at the top of the leaderboard.
Stewart Cink found himself looking at the leaderboard and thinking exactly that.
“It feels like a major out there,” Cink said. “Those names up there have all had some success.”
Retief Goosen and Angel Cabrera are among those tied for first going into the final round, with Cink and Lee Westwood one stroke back and Harrington, Vijay Singh and Y.E. Yang two back. The 11 golfers on or close to the lead have combined to win 13 major championships.
“The people up there are the people that have a lot of experience,” Cabrera said after getting to 5 under for the tournament. “Most of them have been in many majors, and you can see that.”
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