Andy DevaneyPadraig Harrington defended his US Senior Open title at Scioto Country Club in Ohio on Sunday, winning by four shots and becoming only the fourth golfer to retain the championship. For a man due back at Royal Birkdale next week, where he won The Open in 2008, this was less a victory lap than a fairly pointed reminder.
Harrington adds another line to a remarkable record
Harrington’s final-round 66 was the sort of Sunday score that tends to make everyone else look as though they have been asked to assemble flat-pack furniture in a crosswind. He began the day one shot behind, then produced a four-under round to move clear and stay there.
He was also the only player in the field to shoot in the 60s on all four days, which is usually a useful strategy if one is interested in trophies, history and making opponents quietly reassess their life choices.
The win made Harrington only the fourth player to defend the US Senior Open, and the first to do so since Allen Doyle in 2006. More significantly, it placed him alongside Miller Barber as the only three-time winners in the event’s 46-year history.
That is not a bad weekend’s work, even by Harrington’s standards.
No late chaos, just Harrington control
Harrington’s career has rarely been short of theatre. He has won majors with nerve, imagination and the sort of internal argument that appears to fuel him rather than distract him. This time, though, the closing stretch was unusually tidy.
“I like creating records, and to be part of that is a big deal. It just shows how hard it is,” said Harrington. “It feels great, but there wasn’t the drama we normally provide down the stretch. I knew I had a nice lead, which let me play to the middle of the greens and hit the shots. I hit some big shots coming home to take all the stress out of it.”
That is Harrington in miniature: part competitor, part analyst, part man who appears happiest when the golf course is asking awkward questions. At Scioto, he found the answers early enough to remove the usual late palpitations.
From Royal Birkdale to senior golf history
Harrington, 54, already sits among Europe’s most accomplished golfers. Three major titles, multiple victories on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour, and a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame have long since secured that.
Yet the senior chapter is becoming more than a pleasant postscript. Sunday’s victory was his fourth senior major title and his 12th PGA Tour Champions win. It also strengthened a rare link between two very different eras of his career.
In 2008, Harrington won The Open at Royal Birkdale, then became the first European to win back-to-back majors when he claimed the US PGA Championship a few weeks later. Now, with another US Senior Open secured, he returns to Birkdale carrying form, history and a trophy cabinet that must be groaning like an old clubhouse staircase.
Harrington also joins Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Trevino among those to have won both The Open Championship and the US Senior Open. That is a fairly exclusive dinner table, and not one where anyone is likely to be impressed by a tidy monthly medal score.
Wilson partnership continues to age rather well
There is also a commercial story here, though thankfully one with genuine sporting substance behind it. Harrington has been a Wilson player since 1998, making it one of the longest-running player-and-brand relationships in the game.
In that time, he has won three major titles, added senior major silverware and remained one of golf’s most restless technicians. He is not exactly the sort to leave a club in the bag because the paint looks nice.
Bob Thurman, Global General Manager, Golf at Wilson, said: “Padraig is a truly wonderful ambassador for Wilson and his history-making successes with our golf equipment continue to excite and inspire us all. He is a credit to the game of golf and we’re delighted to celebrate his fourth senior Major title with him.”
Harrington uses an RB Utility Iron, Staff Model CB irons from 5-iron to pitching wedge, and Staff Model Forged wedges in 52°, 58° and 64°.
Why this win matters
There is a tendency to treat senior golf as a warm after-dinner conversation involving familiar names and looser belts. Harrington keeps making that view look lazy. His work remains intense, his standards remain mildly alarming, and his appetite for records appears undimmed.
This was not a sentimental win. It was a proper championship performance from a player still operating with edge, craft and competitive bite.
At Scioto, Padraig Harrington did not merely defend a title. He tightened his grip on a corner of golf history, then packed for Birkdale with the air of a man who still has business to discuss.
