Pádraig Harrington is forever the optimist and that could be his greatest strength as he hopes to wake up on Sunday morning still in with an outside chance of winning his fourth major title at the PGA Championship.
Harrington, a 2008 Wanamaker Trophy winner, produced a vintage third round performance with a three-under 67 to reach level-par and he is currently five shots behind the on course lead as moving day comes to a close at Aronimink.
A bunched leaderboard isn’t what Rory McIlroy wants for a major championship but 54-year-old Harrington couldn’t give two hoots if he is one of 41 players within five shots of the lead, he just needs to retain belief that he can emerge from the pack and launch a closing sprint on Sunday.
“Clearly with the wind getting up, maybe one or two better could be in a very nice place going into Sunday,” Harrington, who might rue two late bogeys in round two, told reporters.
“Now we have to hope that leaders don’t get away, and have a big day tomorrow. In terms of winning the tournament, I probably needed those two or three shots I left out there today.
“I ain’t going out there to play for second, third, fourth or fifth. I won’t remember it. So I’m hoping I go out there and just fall into the zone tomorrow, and it just keeps flowing.”
The Dubliner certainly showed glimpsed of how good he can be when he is in the zone at this level. It was a good day with the flat stick and a 22-foot birdie putt at the first hole set the tone for the day.
In went putts of eight and twelve feet on the 6th and 7th before an 11-foot par effort on the 8th and although he missed a shorty on the par-5 9th for a birdie he bounced back from a bogey on 14 with a 270-yard dart to five feet for birdie on 15.
Harrington had missed his last three of his last four cuts at the PGA Championship since his T4 finish in 2021. He is of the age now where he can acknowledge making the cut as an achievement but he knows that if he can keep trending towards his ‘A’ game he can upset a few of the young guns on Sunday.
“Of course, making the cut is not a bad thing at my age, and, of course, if I could go out there and play well, and look like I’m competitive with these young guys, that’s not a bad thing either,” he said.
“I try and expect more, but I certainly appreciate the fact that I still go out there and play with these young guys and good young players, and I can hold my own.
“I don’t feel like I’m out there getting in the way.”
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