Pádraig Harrington bounced back from his two-over-par second with a third-round 70 to climb to into a tie for 23rd heading into the final round of the second major of the PGA TOUR Champions 2026 season.
Harrington began with a birdie at the par-5 second hole, before making a bogey at the par-3 seventh to take the turn at even-par.
The 54-year-old started hot on the back nine with a quick birdie at the par-3 10th, before adding another at the 12th.
The three time major winner kept his cool to par his way back to the clubhouse to post a two-under-par round in tricky wind conditions and sit at five-under-par for the weekend – 10-strokes back from the lead.
Tyrone’s Darren Clarke posted his second even-par round of the week as the 57-year-old sits T54 at two-over.
Starting on the back nine, Clarke made a bad bogey at the par-5 13th before cancelling it out with a birdie at the 18th.
The back nine saw two birdies and two bogeys as Clarke closed out his third round with a birdie at the par-4 ninth.
Stewart Cink increased his lead to three strokes at the Regions Tradition in his bid to win consecutive senior major titles.
After back-to-back seven-under-par rounds, Cink posted a one-under-par 71 to get to 15-under at his home event.
“Overall today it was just a lot harder day to score,” Cink said. “I wasn’t quite as sharp either as I was the first couple days, but sometimes the golf course it just turns on you a little bit. The wind direction on a lot of the holes was awkward and it was difficult to pick out a lot of the gusts in the direction of it.”
In 20mph winds, the 52-year-old offset a double bogey on the par-5 15th with birdies on the par-3 14th and par-5 18th.
“The birdie at the last was nice,” said Cink. “That was some pretty good shots. But the double on the 15th hole was what happens when you hit a whole bunch of bad shots in one hole. You get a bad score,” he added.
Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie sits solo second at 12-under after the 62-year-old posted a five-under-par third round.
“This is the beauty of the game of golf that age is just a number,” Montgomerie said. “If it was any other sport, you would be well gone by now.”
USA’s Doug Barron and Australia’s Steven Alker share T3 at 10-under, followed by six players in T5 at nine-under.
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