Pádraig Harrington went into the final round of the TimberTech Championship at Boca Raton, Florida with a strong grip and proceeded to tighten it with each of the 64 strokes of his final round as the Dubliner claimed his sixth career win on the Champions Tour in dominant fashion.
Harrington – who opened with six birdies in his opening seven holes of the final round – was a class apart, as his finishing total of 16-under-par 197 in the 54-holes tournament gave him a runaway seven-strokes winning margin over runners-up Charlie Wi and Benhard Langer, with Ernie Els a shot further back in joint-fourth place with Shane Bertsch.
The victory gave Harrington a pay-day of $350,000 (€326,000) and his second title of the season on the Champions Tour, having successfully defended his Dick’s Sporting Goods title back in June.
After that successful defence, Harrington – with an eye on possibly making Europe’s Ryder Cup team – focused his attentions on the DP World Tour rather than on the Champions Tour but he did not take long to get back to winning ways after his return stateside to the over-50s circuit.
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Harrington carried a one-stroke lead into the final round and wasted no time in strengthening his position with an impressive opening salvo of birdies on the first and second holes and then followed up a par on the third with a run of four straight birdies, from the fourth to the seventh, to take complete control of the event on the Old Course at Broken Sound.
A bogey on the ninth to turn in 31 proved he was fallible, but he got back on the birdie trail coming home with further birdies on the 14th and 16th before dropping a shot on the 17th and bouncing back with a closing birdie on the 18th for his 64. That moved him from ninth to third on the season-long Charles Schwab Cup order of merit points list in which Steve Stricker has an unassailable lead as the season comes to a close with this coming week’s Charles Schwab Championship in Arizona.
Harrington’s list of career wins on the Champions Tour includes four last year (US Seniors Open, Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, Ascension Charity Classic and the Charles Schwab Championship) and this latest success has ensured multiple winner status for two straight seasons, with the defence of his title in Arizona to finish off his work on the seniors circuit for the season.
