ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Stunningly spectacular may or may not do justice to what Padraig Harrington pulled off Sunday afternoon at En-Joie Golf Course, but we’ll go with that.
A relative afterthought in terms of contention even a couple holes into his back nine, the reigning Dick’s Sporting Goods Open champion went on an incomprehensible streak thereafter to shoot 9-under 63 for an 18-under aggregate and single-stroke win over Joe Durant.
The first back-to-back champion in this PGA Tour Champions event, Harrington clubbed En-Joie’s back side to the sweetest tune of 7-under 28 – five birdies, one eagle. Par at the 18th was sufficient to grab a $315,000 cut of the cake for a second straight summer in Endicott, marking his first win this season following a four-victory rookie year in 2022.
Joe Durant, 18-hole leader by three and Sunday’s pace-setter for much of the back nine, went 64-69-66 as runner-up, a shot better than Ernie Els, whose closing bogey left him a 68 and 16-under total.
Final-threesome members Brett Quigley and Miguel Angel Jimenez finished T-5 and eighth, respectively.
After making his initial back-nine birdie at the par-5 12th, Harrington stood 12-under and five back of leader Joe Durant. Nice little story and all – “Defending champion makes fine bid,” or whatever – but uh-uh.
The meat of the golf course, particularly under all that accompanies Sunday contention, in truth begins at the par-4 13th. Aside from the go-and-get 16th, there are not breathers.
However …
Harrington made birdie-3 at the 13th, birdie-2 at the 14th and, to grab some major attention, birdie-3 at the 15th. And on that kind of roll, why not go ahead and make 2 at that par-4 16th, and chase that with a second successive 2 at the par-3 17th to go 9-under for the day and snatch the lead?
“You know, I played really nicely for the first 12 holes,” he said. “Three three-putts. You know, you can’t three-putt when you’re chasing like that. And then on 11 I got in trouble and made a great up-and-down. It was amazing, it was a bad hole that kicked that, kind of gave me, oh, that was OK. I got up and down from 31 yards out of a bunker, holed an eight-footer and it kind of — it went from feeling like everything was going against you, to, oh, that’s not so bad.
“Obviously I wasn’t thinking about winning at that stage, I was thinking about just trying to make birdies.
“When I started making them, yeah, then I started thinking about it when I got, I suppose, three or four of them. But it was a bonus obviously to make eagle. It was nice, pushing up the tee on 16 helped, just made it a perfect 3 wood whereas every other day you’re kind of between driver, 3 wood. First day, I went with 3 wood when I was making all those bad decisions. Today, it was a perfect 3 wood. That was a nice bonus.
“And when I had about a six-footer on 17, it’s amazing when you’re holing putts. I could have closed my eyes, turned my back and I would have holed the putt on 17. It’s amazing, when they’re going in you can’t see a way of missing. When they’re not going in, as they were on the front nine, I couldn’t see a way of getting them in.”
Then came the necessary par on 18, with Els still lurking. But Els would make bogey at the last and the 51-year-old Irishman was to celebrate once again in Endicott – to the delight of so many in attendance.
“There’s no doubt a lot of players came up to me this week and said, “well played last week (T27 at the U.S. Open in Los Angeles), and that does you no harm, does you no harm,” Harrington said. “As I’ve said about the Champions Tour, it’s interesting. When we’re out here we’re trying to beat the hell out of each other, but whenever somebody goes back to the regular Tour we’re all rooting for them. We’re all hoping whoever goes back plays well just to prove that we still have it out here.
“And it is startling how much pressure you’re under out here. You’ve got to shoot 18 under in three days. That’s a lot of work. Doesn’t matter, you know, you’ve got to hole the putts, you’ve got to hit the wedges close, you’ve got to play some golf to get to 18-under par. You know these guys can play.”
He was a fairly pedestrian 2 under through 11 with those ahead making some hay. But then?
“You’ve got to stay patient,” he said. “I made a nice par on 11, which kind of turned things around. Then I got on a roll, and after making — I think after I made three in a row, I kind of said, you know, how many am I behind now? I started looking at the leaderboard. Normally, I wouldn’t look at the leaderboard, but I was really consciously looking to see, OK, what do I need to do?
“Knew I needed to keep pressing. It just seemed everything went right for the last seven holes.”