Pádraig Harrington bags third Seniors Tour victory in St Louis

Three-time major winner picks up €300,000 as he chases down Order of Merit success on Champions Tour

WINNER: Pádraig Harrington after securing his third win of the season on the PGA Seniors Tour in St Louis, Missouri. 

Pádraig Harrington is having some blast on the PGA Champions Tour.

In his first season on the senior circuit, the 51-year-old Dubliner has now earned three wins, the latest on Sunday at the Ascension Charity Classic at Norwood Hills Country Club in St Louis, Missouri. 

That's two wins in Harrington’s last three starts after he previously claimed the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in August and the US Senior Open in June. He finished -14, one shot ahead of South Korea's YE Yang.

It wasn’t always pretty in the final round for Harrington, who almost lost the lead down the stretch after making three bogeys – as well as two key birdies – over his last six holes. He picked up a tasty €295,000, increasing his season earnings to €2.4m.

“I had done the work today, hit four wedges pretty stiff, had four eagle putts on top of that, so I had done all the work, I just had to get to the clubhouse and sometimes that’s just not that easy,” said Harrington after his round.

The ex-Ryder Cup captain has won three of his last seven tournaments and only finished outside the top four once.

Harrington is closing in on Steve Alker in the Charles Schwab Cup Standings but still trails the 51-year-old from New Zealand, who also has three wins this year on the senior tour. Alker was victorious at the Rapiscan Systems Classic, Insperity Invitational and KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, and has also lost in a pair of playoffs at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship and ClubCorp Classic.

The Champions tour is back in action later this week at the Sanford International at Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

“It feels good. It was nice to win at the start, get that monkey off my back. Then I started focusing on the Schwab Cup and the only way to catch Steve (Alker), he’s continued to play well, is to get wins myself,” explained Harrington.

“Three wins is nice. I think I have six more to go, but I’ll need to win again at least once if not twice to come out on top. Then you start thinking like how many Hale Irwin’s got, how many Bernhard Langer’s got.

“So there’s lots of goals, but it’s nice that as a young guy out here, it’s a new start, there’s no doubt about it. We’ve had our day in the sun, we’ve had our glory, but it’s nice that we can come back out here and we can wave at the crowds and swan around like we’ve done something.

“If we play well, we get to relive all those pressures. We’re probably not quite as good as we were when we were younger in terms of handling pressure, but we’re probably a bit smarter.” 

YE Yang played his way into contention and came up one-shot short in second at 13 under after a 5-under 66 in the final round. Steve Stricker finished in third at 12 under, followed by Bernhard Langer in fourth at 11 under. Clark Dennis, Ernie Els, Bob Estes, John Huston and Steven Alker all finished T-5 at 10 under.