Pádraig Harrington has become just the second player to win three US Senior Open titles, as he cruised to a four-shot victory with a superb display at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday.
The 54-year-old Dubliner had started Sunday trailing Stewart Cink but he moved quickly to close the gap with birdies on his first two holes.
From there he produced a terrific round of 66, that included five birdies and just one bogey all day. Having previously won the title in 2022 and 2025, Harrington now joins Miller Barber as the only person to win the title three times.
Cink finished four shots back in second spot with his fellow American George McNeill third and England’s Ian Poulter in fourth.
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Darren Clarke shot a final-round 70 to finish on three-under-par overall and in a tie for eighth position.
“It’s different, I’ve got to say,” said Harrington, whose first two US Senior Open were much tighter affairs. “It feels great, but obviously there wasn’t the drama that I know we normally provide down the stretch.
“That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t feeling it. I was really trying to stay in it, stay focused. I knew I had a nice lead which let me play to the middle of the greens, let me hit the shots.
“But I did hit some big shots coming on the way home to take all the stress out of it. I had a great week putting, which wow, golf is easier when you putt well.”
Cink went out in two-over 37 and only carded two birdies all day, the second one coming on the 18th hole as he ended runner-up to Harrington for a second year.
“Today, as it turned out, I played poor enough where there was really not a championship on the line, but I was still battling hard for second,” said Cink
“I wanted to play well and set myself up for the rest of the year. Golf got hard for me today. It happens. It’s been a while since I had a day like that where start-to-finish it pretty much felt difficult. My scorecard pretty much tells the story.”
Harrington highlighted the 515-yard, par-4 eighth hole as a key to his title win as he extended his lead to four strokes over Cink and McNeill with a 25-foot birdie putt, with Cink suffering a bogey on the same hole.
“Eight was a big hole in the sense of him making bogey, but also me holing the ] putt and George missing the [short birdie] putt. It was a big hole all around. There’s no doubt eight is the toughest hole out there. I hit that 6-iron right in the middle of the green, and I can tell you it’s probably 15 feet left of where I was trying to hit it.”
