Padraig Harrington won his second US Senior Open in Colorado this weekend ahead of Stewart Cink and he made reference to the situation involving Tommy Fleetwood and Keegan Bradley when explaining his winning moment.
Harrington saw off Cink and Miguel Angel Jimenez in a tense finale to win out by a single shot as he rolled in a putt on the last to seal the deal.
Harrington’s insatiable desire to keep competing at the highest level he can is inspiring but as always, he was in a reflective mood after getting the win.
Indeed, the Irishman was in good form on the mic as he admitted that in the end, it came down to a bit of luck from the golfing gods to help him.
Padraig Harrington says why Stewart Cink was unlucky at the US Senior Open
Speaking about holding his nerve when it came to making the deciding putts to win the event, Harrington nodded to the fact that golf can sometimes be about getting a bit of luck.
Indeed, he referenced the recent PGA Tour event where Tommy Fleetwood gave Keegan Bradley the read to lose out at The Travelers.
“I’d missed the putts on 13, 14, 15. I missed some good chances. I thought I was going to pay for it. When Stewart was back to the wall, when I pushed him into it, he hit two great shots on 16 and 17 in there close,” Harrington admitted.
“Nothing’s given out here for sure, and nothing is that comfortable for all us guys on the Champions Tour. He looked like he hit pretty decent putts. Especially it looked like he hit a very good putt on 16, looked like it was going in.
I think, with what we’ve seen recently with JJ Spaun getting a great read on the 72nd hole and then Tommy Fleetwood giving a great read to Keegan Bradley, I was looking at Mark Hensby gave a great read to Stewart on 17, as his ball came down and it broke, but as it turned out, it actually messed him up because Stewart is coming up the hill, and if anything, it went to the right. So, yeah, that’s just how lucky I am. Those two guys — it was a bad break for Stewart, as it turned out.”
Golf can be a cruel game at times
Harrington’s reference to the recent events on the PGA Tour are really accurate here.
The nod towards Bradley beating Fleetwood at the last is bang on and it just goes to show that so often in golf, it comes down to a bit of luck and chance as to how things pan out.
For Harrington, it turned out in his favour this time but there’ll have been so many occasions over the course of his career where it hasn’t worked out for him.
Right now, he has a second US Senior Open title in the bag because of it and at the end of the day, he won’t care one jot about how he got the job done.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
