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Pádraig Harrington hits a tee shot on the fourth hole during the third round of the Simmons Bank Championship 2024 at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Arkansas. Photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
Pádraig Harrington kept his hopes alive of winning the Charles Schwab Cup for the first time when he claimed his third win of the season in the Simmons Bank Championship in Arkansas.
After carding rounds of 67 and 65 to share the 36-hole lead with New Zealander Steven Alker on 12-under, the Dubliner (53) birdied the last for a hard-fought five-under 67 and a two-shot win over South Korea’s YE Yang on 17-under-par, claiming $365,000.
It was Harrington’s ninth win in 48 starts on the PGA Tour Champions and crucial for his hopes of winning the season-long points race at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix from November 7-10.
The three-time major winner went into the penultimate event in Little Rock ranked 11th in the standings.
He knew it was a win or bust if he was to have a mathematical chance of winning the overall Charles Schwab Cup title and he pulled it off by making six birdies on the final day.
The win catapults him to fourth place on the points list behind Ernie Els, Alker, and Stephen Ames, which means his destiny is now in his own hands.
Harrington birdied the par three second and fifth at Pleasant Valley Country Club and added birdie fours at the fourth, eighth and 10th to lead by three shots from Cameron Percy on 17-under.
Percy closed to within one stroke when he birdied the 13th and 14th to go seven under for the day with Yang a shot further back on 15-under after 15 holes.
But while Percy bogeyed the 15th, 16th and 17 in fading to fifth. Harrington also bogeyed the 14th, three-putting from a swale left of the green.
Leading now by one from Japan’s Hiroyuki Fujita, Harrington got up and down from sand at the 15th to stay ahead on 16-under.
Yang looked out of it when he double-bogeyed the 16th. But the former PGA champion birdied the last two holes and shot 65 to set the target at 15-under.
Harrington made regulation pars at the 16th and 17th to lead by one heading down the par five 18th where he followed a booming drive with a long iron to the green before before two-putting for a closing birdie.
Harrington will be joined at the 35-man Charles Schwab Cup Championship by Darren Clarke, who closed with a 70 to finish tied for 34th on four-under in Arkansas.
