Zach Johnson shoots 65 as Padraig Harrington falls short of another PGA Champions tour title

The Irishman had held the joint lead after two of the three rounds alongside Stewart Cink and Rory Sabbatini

Padraig Harrington couldn't quite get over the line this time in Portugal. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.

Padraig Harrington gets the job done more than most on the veterans’ tour.

The Irishman entered this weekend’s Portugal Invitational – the first officially PGA Tour Champions-sanctioned event to be staged in the country – with an all-time win ratio bettered only by Steve Stricker when counting players with ten or more wins.

He held the joint lead after two of the three rounds alongside Stewart Cink and Rory Sabbatini, and in prime position to claim the biggest pot in a €2.6m prize fund as he teed off early on Sunday having already won nine of the 13 times when standing at the head of the field in the past.

It wasn’t to be this time.

Harrington could only follow up two rounds of 66 and 65 with a 70 to finish 15-under par for the week at The Els Club in Vilamoura with a Zach Johnson 65 proving enough to hold him off by four shots and Cink by a pair.

Sabbatini could only tie for 13th after a disastrous 76 to close.

Johnson showed his intent right off the bat with three straight birdies, and he signed for two more on the 7th and the 9th to reach the turn in just 31. Another birdie at the 11th and a string pars was capped by one last birdie at 18 for a seven-under round.

No-one shot lower on the day.

Cink, who leads the Champions Tour's order of merit ahead of Johnson and Harrington, bogeyed the second hole. That was his first and last dropped shot as he managed five birdies to card a 68 that just wasn’t enough.

Harrington was two-under for his round after five but he matched three more birdies with as many bogeys and couldn’t ever get close enough to put the squeeze on Johnson. That left the reigning US Senior Open champion with a third-place finish.

“I got off to the dream start and I really felt like the putt going in on seven was key. I had a couple of putts that lipped in that could have lipped out and that was the difference,” said Johnson.

Hear from the champ 🏆

Safe to say Zach Johnson enjoyed his time in Portugal. pic.twitter.com/ZI7wUqh3VW

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) August 2, 2026

The event was unique enough to attract a star-studded field.

Miguel Angel Jimenez finished fifth after shooting the second-lowest round of the day, a 67. Justin Leonard, Open champion 27 years ago, hit a brilliant 65, joint lowest of the day with Johnson, to finish in a tie for ninth.

Others in the field included Darren Clarke, Retief Goosen, Els, David Duval, Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie.

Johnson only turned 50 in late February but wasted no time in making his mark in the Champions Tour by winning the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational just two weeks later. Portugal is his fourth title already.