Pádraig Harrington has become the first player in 20 years to successfully defend the U.S. Senior Open title after a scintillating weekend performance at Scioto Country Club in Ohio.
The defending champion began the final round one shot behind Stewart Cink who looked to be on course to complete a hat-trick of major titles having already won the Regions Tradition and the Senior PGA Championship and to move one step closer to a history-making clean sweep of the senior gongs, but Harrington had an eye on a slice of history of his own and now joins Miller Barber as the only players with three wins in the championship’s now 46-year history.
The Dubliner rolled in a 20-footer for birdie on the first to draw level with Cink, and took sole possession of top spot when he spun an iron to three-feet on the second and made no mistake with the putt. A Cink bogey on the same hole left Harrington two clear, and though he dropped a shot on the fifth after three-putting from the front edge of the heavily-sloped green, he remained firmly in control.
Further birdies on the par-5 sixth and par-4 eighth and 11th holes saw him push the advantage to five strokes. With victory firmly in his grasp, he kept the door shut and parred each of the next six to maintain that five-stroke lead on the 18th tee.
After finding the fairway and then the fat part of the green, ignoring the tucked left pin, he enjoyed his walk and the healthy applause that rained down as he made his way to the green.
Cink and George McNeill were locked in a battle for second, with the former one ahead as they tackled the last and though both players took on the flag, McNeill’s 15-footer ran out of gas, leaving Cink with a six-footer for a consolation birdie which he rolled home.
This cleared the stage for Harrington from four feet after his lengthy first putt drifted past, and though he had the luxury of being able to take four, he only needed one and the final winning margin was four strokes, the highest winning margin since Steve Stricker’s six in 2019.
The victory comes with an $800,000 first prize, and also means that Harrington will be in the field for next year’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach for which Rory McIlroy and Stuart Grehan are already qualified and several other Irishmen are likely to join them.
Darren Clarke, who shot up the leaderboard with a six-under 64 on Saturday, closed out with a level-par round of 70 to secure a T8 finish at -3 – his first top-10 in the USGA’s senior major championship at the seventh time of asking.
Portrush’s Chris Devlin was the underdog story of the opening two rounds, but a second successive 71 saw him slip into a tie for 17th at level-par.
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