While he was concerned about a charging Miguel Angel Jimenez, who eventually finished two behind after a stunning 64, Harrington was just a shot ahead of Stewart Cink playing the 72nd hole at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
The American had missed chances from around six feet on the previous two greens, and fearing he’d eventually pay for his misses with the blade coming down the stretch, Harrington had a decision to make playing the 18th.
Should he play for the heart of the green and hope a two-putt par would be enough, or go for the pin with Cink 30 yards closer to the green?
His caddie, Ronan Flood, had the answer.
“I said, look, if I birdie this hole, I win,” Harrington recalled after carding a three-under 67 to Cink’s 68 to win by a shot on 11 under. “It takes all the permutations out of it.
“Ronan then said something to me, reminded me of something that Hale Irwin told me over the years.
“He said, always hit the shot you would hit if you’re one shot behind, and that kind of gave good clarity to what I was going to do.
“Obviously, if you’re one shot behind, you’d be hitting at that pin, you’ve got to take it on. I think it made the decision, but it gave me clarity to that decision that I was confident that I was doing the right thing.”
The Dubliner hit a “half wedge” that danced to a halt seven feet away, heaping the pressure on Cink, whose second spun back 35 feet from the hole.
“It skipped up there one bounce, stopped,” Harrington recounted. “It couldn’t have been close enough. What was it, six, seven feet? I would have struggled to two-putt from 40 feet, so I was very happy to have two to win from six feet.”
Cink missed his long-range birdie attempt, and while Harrington missed too, he enjoyed tapping in for his second US Senior Open win since 2022 and his tenth victory as a senior with his wife Caroline and son Paddy in the gallery.
Winning never gets old, and Harrington is loving life as a senior, where the entire field is battling scar tissue but still hoping to relive the glory days.
“I definitely make an effort to enjoy my tournaments more, enjoy what’s going on around them,” he explained. “It’s not all work. And having your family here is part of that.
“Like on Wednesday night, what’s Wednesday night? I went for an In-N-Out burger. I didn’t eat a French fry or a burger for 10 to 15 years of my career. Everything was about getting the right diet, all that sort of thing.
“Like before the start of the tournament, I actually had two double-doubles.”
That had the media chuckling and Harrington is enjoying life after 50, or life post-tour “burn out”.
“I’m a more relaxed person,” he said. “Still not relaxed, but more relaxed than I was as a younger player.
“It’s unbelievable. We’re so much better together at this stage of our careers.
“Everybody is happier and friendlier. We’re not half as grumpy as we were when we were young guys.
“Most of us would have burnt out in golf. You put so much into your golfing career, you burn out. Usually, you last about 20 years, 15 to 20 years is the burn-out period. The Champions Tour is a new lease of life.
“The only way you can kind of do it is do it with a different attitude and a new attitude. As I said, it’s about, I suppose, enjoying your past glories now and reliving them.”
Getting the breaks at the right time remains one of the keys to winning at any age and Harrington admitted his chip-in birdie at the last on Saturday was big.
“It could have been a three-shot swing,” he confessed. “Mark (Hensby) and Stewart looked like they were going to make birdie to go to nine under. Mine was going to go by.
“As it turned out, it could have gone by five, six feet…. For sure, it was a big boost. It looked like it did carry into today.”
As for what his second senior major meant to him, he had no doubt.
“Winning,” he said. “It’s all about winning.”
Pádraig Harrington in action at the US Senior Open Championship at Broadmoor Golf Club, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photo: Andy Cross/The Denver Post via AP
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – June 30th
