Irishman Padraig Harrington used a torrid start to his final round to run away with the TimberTech Championship title on Sunday in Boca Raton, Fla.
Harrington birdied six of his first seven holes en route to a final-round, 7-under 64. At 16-under 197 for the weekend, Harrington posted a whopping seven-shot victory at the Old Course at Broken Sound.
Germany’s Bernhard Langer — who won last year’s event by six strokes — posted a final-round 70 and tied for second at 9 under with South Korea’s Charlie Wi (64).
Harrington, 52, won for the sixth time since beginning to play the PGA Tour Champions in 2022.
“It was important to win from being in front,” Harrington said on the Golf Channel broadcast. “I think as players, we like to keep the idea that if we get a lead, we can handle the pressure, so it was very important for me.”
After the 6-under start to Harrington’s round, he stumbled with a bogey at the par-4 ninth, but he said afterwards he was grateful to sink that bogey putt and avoid what could have been a three-shot swing in Langer’s favor.
“Kind of battened down the hatches for a few holes after that, and then the last few were a little easier,” Harrington said.
He finished with three birdies and one bogey over the last five holes.
The TimberTech Championship was the second of three legs of the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. While Steve Stricker has already clinched the season-long title, Harrington moved from ninth to third place in the standings heading into next week’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
Langer double-bogeyed his penultimate hole to fall into a tie for second, which opened the door for Wi to leap to 35th in the Schwab Cup race — qualifying him for the season finale, where only the top 36 in the standings are invited. Wi entered the week far back at No. 54.
Rob Labritz, who shot a 71 Sunday and tied for 10th at 5 under, earned the 36th and final spot for the championship. Lee Janzen and Paul Goydos — also part of that tie at 5 under — came up just short at Nos. 37 and 38.
–Field Level Media