Pádraig Harrington is still looking to tick boxes, to achieve new career goals.
And the 53-year-old Dubliner – with the benefit of a week off, which he spent practising in Florida – heads into the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup in Phoenix, Arizona, with the chance to top a great season by claiming the order of merit title on the Champions Tour.
Currently in fourth place on the rankings, led by Ernie Els, Harrington is one of six players in the 35-man field who can top the money list with a win.
“I know with the Charles Schwab Cup, I’m not getting any younger. Your chances of winning it, you want to take it when you get a chance. There’s more good players coming out every year, so whatever advantage you have when you’re young, that’s being eroded. You want to take it when you get the chance,” said Harrington of aiming to tick yet another box in a career that has yielded three Majors and entry into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
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Harrington has juggled his time between the Champions Tour along with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour this year, yet managed three wins on the seniors circuit to head into the tour finale with that chance to catch and leapfrog Els.
Indeed, there are six players – Els, Harrington, Steven Alker, Stephen Ames, YE Yang and Richard Green – who have destiny in their own hands if one were to manage to close out the season with a win.
Harrington – who won the tournament but not the order of merit in 2022 on the old-style treelined course at Phoenix Country Club – won the Simmons Bank a fortnight ago to add to his Dick’s Open and Hoag Classic successes earlier in the season.
“It’s clearly not a Major,” said Harrington of the big tournament feel, “but because it’s the last one and it’s so important to us, there is that extra stress that you want to do more. You’re trying to be a little bit more careful, you’re trying to be a bit more prepared whereas one of the secrets to me playing better is I’ve been a bit more relaxed and let myself enjoy the tournaments. When you’re playing well and you’re in positions like this, it’s hard for the old me to not come back out and over try.”
Darren Clarke is also in the field after another consistent season, although he is unable, even with a win, to move to the top of the Champions Tour order of merit. Clarke lies in 17th place on the season’s rankings.
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