Padraig Harrington bounces back from lost ball row to claim second US Senior Open title by one shot

A week that started with a surreal row over a lost ball ended with Padraig Harrington becoming a multiple major champion on golf’s over-50s circuit.

By winning the US Senior Open for a second time on Sunday evening, the 53-year-old is now two-thirds of the way to replicating the haul he achieved in his prime. 

As with his 2007 victory at The Open, this triumph came at the expense of Stewart Cink, whom he beat by a stroke at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs

Cink had led by one leaving the 10th green, but his bogey at the next dovetailed with Harrington’s birdie for a two-shot swing and the Irishman was flawless over the final seven holes on his way to a 67.

At 11 under par for the tournament, he won back the title he lifted in 2022 and an $800,000 payday, with former Ryder Cup team-mate Miguel Angel Jimenez in third.

It was a perfect end to a week that began in a fraught manner, when Harrington lost a ball off the tee in the first round and was subsequently filmed in a tense conversation with NBC’s Roger Maltbie. Harrington was unimpressed that the former pro had not helped him search in the trees.

Harrington was heard accusing Maltbie of a breach of etiquette, saying: ‘You’ve played golf all your life. You understand. You don’t stand looking at somebody looking for a golf ball.’

On Sunday, Maltbie clarified his position to Golf.com: ‘I’ve never had a cross word with Padraig. I’ve been a Padraig fan all these years. Anyway, I tried to explain to him, “Padraig, my producer had told me to stand by”. They were going to come to me for a report. I could not do it, searching for your ball inside those trees. So I did not go in.

‘Every time I tried to explain to him, he said, “It’s poor etiquette. It’s golf etiquette to help somebody in search for a ball”, and that I should know better after the years of playing.

‘I tried to say, “Listen, I have a boss”. I’m not a player, and if I were a spectator or certainly playing with him, I would have helped him search for his ball. But I was under instructions. It just wouldn’t work. But he wanted no part of it.

‘I was very close to saying, “All these years, all these checks I’ve gotten from NBC, your name isn’t on any of them”. I mean, his caddie works for him, so I’m sure his caddie does what Padraig tells him to do. Well, I have an employer, and if they tell me basically what I’m going to do or what they want from me, I have to honour that. But he just doesn’t see it that way.’