Fifty-four-hole events tend to be a sprint to the finish line anyway, but Padraig Harrington’s furious back-nine kick was an extraordinary display of Sunday pressure golf that propelled him to a one-stroke victory in Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.

Harrington, 51, the defending champion, trailed leader Joe Durant by three at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, N.Y., then played a six-hole stretch in seven under par, completing a round of nine-under 63 to record his fifth PGA Tour Champions victory and first of the year.

“It was amazing, it was a bad hole that kicked that. I got and down from 31 yards out of a bunker, holed an eight-footer and it went from feeling like everything was going against you, to, oh, that’s not so bad,” Harrington said. “Obviously I wasn’t thinking about winning at that stage, I was thinking about just trying to make as many birdies.

“When I started making them, then I started thinking about [winning] when I got, I suppose, three or four of them. But it was a bonus obviously to make eagle. And when I had about a six-footer on 17, it’s amazing when you’re holing putts. I could have closed my eyes, turned my back and I would have holed the putts on 17.”

Durant, 59, was in pursuit of his first senior victory in more than three years and seemed in command, playing the first 12 holes in six under par. But he parred out for a final-round six-under 66 that left him one stroke short.

Harrington started his incredible run at the 12th hole. He made four straight birdies, followed by an eagle two at 16 and another birdie at 17 before closing with a par.

On the eve of the tournament, he was cautiously optimistic, coming off two quality starts, a playoff loss to Steve Stricker in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and a tie for 27th in the U.S. Open last week at Los Angeles Country Club.

“I feel good about my game,” he said. “Sometimes I try and get better for down the road instead of being focused on the tournament at hand. But that’s the burden I have, I suppose, all the time. I’m always trying to get better and better, which can hold you back in the short term for sure.

“My goal is to try and get my head in the game. I finished my practice now so my head better be in the game now, but even if it’s not quite there tomorrow, as long as it’s there for the last nine holes on Sunday that would be OK.”

It exceeded OK, this seven-under 28 to close. In fact, he played his last 10 holes in eight under par.

The post Padraig Harrington’s furious back-nine rally carries him to second straight Dick’s Sporting Goods Open victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Upsets come with varying degrees of surprise, but this one from Cameron Beckman in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on Sunday seemed closer to impossible than improbable, a slumping journeyman knocking out a World Golf Hall of Famer.

Beckman, 51, playing without full-time status on the PGA Tour Champions and mired in a slump, birdied the first five holes of the back nine at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y., then hung on to defeat probably the best player on the senior tour, Ernie Els, by a stroke.

“My life is so good right now,” Beckman said after a tap-in bogey at 18 gave him his first victory in 4,151 days, since he won the PGA Tour’s Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun in 2010. “I’ve got so much good stuff going on in my life. This just adds to it. I’ve had a bad kind of run in 2021 and kind of got focused with my sister [Tiffany Mattick] and she really got me going. She’s a mental coach. I needed some help. This just feels great. I had so much fun. Getting to play with Ernie and Darren [Clarke]. It was a blast.

“I spent a lot of time with my sister talking this week. And I haven’t been playing that great. So today I thought it was a great opportunity to really loosen up and play, and see if I could really kind of play like I’m capable of. That’s kind of what I did, and that’s why I’m standing here kissing that trophy.”

Beckman did not get his first 2021 start until May, a tie for 20th in the Insperity Invitational. In his next seven starts, he never finished better than a tie for 42nd and in four of them finished tied for 60th or worse.To compound the unlikelihood of his winning on Sunday, he started the final round three strokes back of Els and started the back nine still three strokes down. Then he made those five straight birdies, while Els was playing the same holes in two-over, a seven-stroke swing between the pair.

Beckman limped home from there, with two bogeys on his final four holes, including at the 18th when he hit his tee shot into the water, while Els played the final four in one-under. Beckman shot a four-under-par 68 to finish 54 holes in 12-under par 204, while Els shot an even-par 72 for a 205 total.

“It’s going to sting a bit,” Els said. “I think I might need to have a couple of beers tonight. But at least my game is there. I’ve had two good weeks. Today I should have won, but Cameron played a great round of golf. He kept it together when he needed to.”

The victory gives Beckman, who won three times on the PGA Tour, a full exemption on the senior tour through the remainder of this year and in 2022. Moreover, he now qualifies to play in the U.S. Senior Open that starts Thursday at Omaha Country Club in Omaha, Neb

The post Cameron Beckman, with an assist from his sister, delivers the unlikeliest of victories over a Hall of Famer appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
It has not been an easy five years, most notably the year that wife Cathy fought and eventually succumbed to cancer, but Bart Bryant is a tournament winner again.

Bryant, 55, holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th green at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y., the difference in his one-stroke victory in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.

“For me, it kind of feels like I’m back a little bit,” Bryant said. “It’s been a long road in life and and a long road in golf, and the golf just hasn’t been very good. The last three or four months I’ve started to feel I had something, I just wasn’t making the putts. This week I finally made four or five putts over 20 feet or maybe longer. I think that’s what put me over the top. Hopefully it’s going to kick start into better things.”

Cathy Bryant was diagnosed with brain cancer on Mother’s Day, 2016. It claimed her life on April 5, 2017. The 2017 season was the least productive of his PGA Tour Champions career; he failed to post a top 10 in 15 starts.

This win came nearly five years to the day after his last PGA Tour Champions victory, also in this tournament, on this course.

“For some reason I just like it here,” he said. “You’ve got to hit it straight and I’m a short, straight hitter. It just fits my game well. It’s funny. It was a whole different deal the last time I was here, with 62 on Saturday and shot even [on Sunday] and squeaked it out. Today I played a real good solid last round. I really Didn’t hit a bad shot all day. Putted awfully well. Really a great way to finish.”

Bryant, who won three times on the PGA Tour, took a one-stroke lead over Michael Bradley into the final hole, then made the clinching putt with Bradley looking on. Bradley followed with his own birdie and finished second. He shot 65-67 on the weekend and finished at 16-under par 200.

“My hat’s off to Bart,” Bradley said. “He played awesome. Sixty-five, 65 [sic] on the weekend, that’s tough to beat. Second place, that’s my best finish on the Champions Tour so I have to take some solace in that.”

The post Bart Bryant wins Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, first victory since losing his wife to cancer appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
On a weekend where match-play competition dominated the golf scene, the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open produced its own one-on-one showdown. Scott McCarron and Kevin Sutherland separated themselves from the rest of the PGA Tour Champions field on Sunday at En-Joie Country Club in Endicott, N.Y., sharing the lead for most of the back nine until McCarron finished birdie-birdie-birdie to close with a bogey-free 64 and win his third senior title of 2017.

Friends since their high school days in Northern California, the duo started the day at 12 under par, McCarron having shot an 11-under 61 on Saturday to jump into contention after an opening 71. Each played the opening nine holes Sunday in four under par, Sutherland holing out from 170 yards on the ninth hole for an eagle.

In search of his first PGA Tour Champions title, Sutherland took the lead with a birdie on the 12th hole, but McCarron made a birdie of his own on the 13th. Both birdied the 16th hole, putting them five strokes clear of third-place finishers John Daly, Woody Austin and Joey Sindelar.

McCarron then showed the closing skills that helped him claim his first career major, the Constellation Senior Players Championship, earlier this summer. It began when he rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th after Sutherland just missed his from 25 feet.

On the par-4 18th hole, McCarron pushed his tee shot into the right rough, but got a drop from an obstruction. After hitting his approach above a canopy of trees to 10 feet, he rolled in another birdie putt that proved decisive when Sutherland made an eight-foot birdie.

“To go low like I did that last couple days,” McCarron, 53, said afterward, “I’ve never played that kind of golf for two days.”

Sutherland, meanwhile, shot a bogey-free 65 and finished at 19 under for the tournament, a score that would have won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open every year since its inception in 2007 except one.

This year’s finish It adds to Sutherland’s enigmatic history at En-Joie. In 2014, Sutherland shot a PGA Tour Champions-record 59 during the second round at the course, only to finish T-7 in the tournament after shooting a closing 74.

For McCarron, it was fifth of his senior career after winning just three times during his PGA Tour career. He also had a notable runner-up finish to Sutherland when the two played in the championship match of the 2002 WGC-Match Play at La Costa, Sutherland winning 1 up.

This time, he pulled out the “match play” win.

“It was like we were back in high school together,” McCarron said. “It was so much fun.”

The post Dick’s Sporting Goods Open champ Scott McCarron is becoming a senior force after winning third title of 2017 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.