COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Padraig Harrington came out on top of a major championship that felt more like match play, closing his round Sunday with seven straight pars at the U.S. Senior Open to top Stewart Cink by one shot.
Playing alongside Cink for the fourth straight day, Harrington shot 3-under-par 67 to finish at 11-under 269 on the tricky, heavily sloping Broadmoor. The Irishman sealed this match by hitting his approach to 8 feet on No. 18, putting pressure on Cink, who trailed by one but sat 30 yards in front of him on the fairway.
Cink’s approach landed on the precipice of a ledge but spun backward and didn’t come to rest until it was 35 feet away to set up a two-putt.
That made it advantage Harrington, who also two-putted to seal the win, though the last laugh went to the Broadmoor.
Minutes earlier, Cink had looks inside of 6 feet to tie on Nos. 16 and 17. The putt on 16 slid to the left, and the putt on 17 burned the edge and stayed right. Cink, who hit more greens over 72 holes than anyone (64), but downplayed the importance of that on this course, turned out to be right.
It really is the putter that matters. Cink needed two more than Harrington on the fourth day of their showdown, the difference between winning and losing.
Harrington won his second U.S. Open title in four years, adding that to a trophy case that also includes the 2007 and ‘08 British Opens and the 2008 PGA.
The only player who threatened to get in the mix in this two-man show was Miguel Angel Jimenez. After opening with bogey, Jimenez made eight bridies to pull within a shot of the lead.
But he yanked his tee shot well left on No. 18, had to punch out and made bogey. He still shot the best round of the tournament, a 6-under 64, and finished in third, two shots back.
The other player in the Cink-Harrington group — players teed off in threesomes to beat the weather — was Mark Hensby.
Celebrating his 54th birthday, Hensby couldn’t conjure any of the magic that led to 19 birdies over the first three days and a share of the lead. He only made two Sunday and shot 3-over 73 to tie for fourth at 5-under with Thomas Bjorn.
Harrington’s signature shot was his last birdie of the day: a 12-footer on the par-4 11th that put him at 11-under. It was a straight-in look, one of the very few anyone gets on this golf course.
But, really, it might have come less than 24 hours earlier when he chipped in from 20 yards off the green for a birdie that tied him with Cink heading into the final day, setting them up with the same tee time for the fourth straight time and setting up a match-play scene that came down to the final shot.
