“I was eagerly looking forward to competing in this event and capping off this season, which has been an incredibly special one for me, but a personal emergency has come up that requires me to stay home,” Stricker said. “My father was admitted to the hospital on Monday afternoon. He is currently receiving care and it is important that I am here for my family during this challenging time.”

With six victories, including three senior major titles, and five runner-up finishes in 16 starts this season on the Champions tour, Stricker has enjoyed one of the most dominating runs in the circuit’s history. He is so far ahead in the Charles Schwab Cup standings that he is guaranteed to capture his first season-long title as a senior player.

As noted by PGA Tour Champions staff, Stricker had a streak of 55 consecutive rounds at par or better, supplanting Tiger Woods’ long-standing record on any tour-sanctioned circuit. Across 16 events, Stricker lost to only 41 players.

Steve Stricker had his own health problems in the fall of 2021 and was hospitalized for weeks with a mysterious illness that included an irregular heartbeat. The player said he lost 25 pounds during that time. Since coming back from the illness, Stricker has won 10 times among the seniors.

Main image: Steve Stricker has won six times on the Champions tour this season. Sam Greenwood

The post With his dad hospitalized, Steve Stricker WDs from Schwab Cup finale appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Steve Stricker insists that he is not quite the player he was in his prime, but on the PGA Tour Champions he is inarguably the prime candidate for player of the year. And it’s not even close.

The amiable Wisconsin native is showing a bit of a streak of avarice these days. On Sunday, he won his third senior major of 2023 and fifth title overall with a three-stroke victory over David Toms in the Kaulig Companies Championship, formerly known as the Senior Players. A steady four-under 66 at Firestone Country Club gave Stricker his second win in three years on the South Course and his seventh senior major title, tied for fourth place with Hale Irwin.

He completed 72 holes in 11-under 269 to join Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Bernhard Langer as players to win three senior majors in one season. The victory earned him an exemption into the 2024 Players Championship after he qualified for next year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., by winning the Senior PGA Championship in late May.

“It’s all icing on the cake,” said Stricker, who earned $525,000 with his 16th career victory on the PGA Tour Champions. “To be 57, 58 years old, whatever I’m going to be next year and to be able to still go out there and play in some of these major championships, it’s pretty cool to be able to have that opportunity still.”

He’s earned that opportunity with a skill set that, overall, appears more solid than during his career on the PGA Tour, where he won 12 times.

The major hat trick ???

Highlights from @stevestricker's win @KauligChamp, his third major championship of the 2023 season. pic.twitter.com/AKLmtz6GnJ

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 16, 2023

“I would still probably take my game back then, to be quite honest with you,” Stricker, 56, said. “I think the older we get, you know, everything starts to deteriorate a little bit—your length, your accuracy, up and down with the putting—but mine has seemed to kind of hang in there a little bit longer than some of the other players, probably.

“But that’s the challenge. I try to keep in shape and eat the right things and do all that kind of stuff because I want to continue to play. I want to play like Bernhard when I’m 65, that’s my goal. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

“Top to bottom, I don’t think he’s ever played better,” said his brother-in-law Mario Tiziani, who caddied for him this week. “Right now, he’s doing everything better than anybody else. It’s not like he’s infallible; he played miserable the second day [with a 73]. But he turned right back around and just moved on. The separator is that he gets it up and down and can score. Nothing really bothers him. He’s just very relaxed, especially coming down the stretch.”

Stricker began the day tied at the top with Harrison Frazar, but he opened with a birdie and never trailed thereafter. He did, however, face a crucial moment at the par-3 15th. Coming off his lone bogey the previous hole, Stricker ran in a 40-footer for the bounce-back birdie to extend his lead to two shots and then added a methodical birdie at the long 16th, wedging to three feet to go three ahead.

Is this some of the best golf @stevestricker has played in his life? ?

An emotional fifth victory this season @KauligChamp. pic.twitter.com/UFO1pid7Io

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) July 16, 2023

“Yeah, those two holes definitely won me the tournament,” he said, “but that’s fun, that’s why we’re playing and that’s what’s exciting for me coming down the stretch, to see if you can handle it. The more times I get in there, the more times I show myself that I can handle it, the more confidence I have in being able to do it.

Toms finished alone in second with a closing 65 and eight-under 272 total, while Frazar missed a four-foot par putt at the last for a 70 that dropped him into a share of third place with Ernie Els and K.J. Choi at 273.

Stricker’s victory extended an uncanny streak at Firestone. He and his best friend, fellow Wisconsin native Jerry Kelly, have now alternated wins the last four years. In March, Kelly set a record when he became the oldest player to make the cut at the Players at age 56. Stricker, who turns 57 in February, is relishing a chance to surpass him.

“I don’t think that would make him very happy,” Stricker said with a mischievous grin. “Definitely I’ve got my sights set on that.”

The post Another week, another major win for Steve Stricker, who collects his third of the year, seventh overall appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The inaugural championship played at the new PGA of America headquarters in Frisco, Texas, was at a minimum a dramatic success, a duel between opposing Ryder Cup captains that ultimately reinforced the fact that these days Stricker owns the PGA Tour Champions.

Stricker, 56, won the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship with a par on the first playoff hole at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, his second straight major championship victory and third win in nine senior starts this season. A bonus was that he won with his daughter Izzi, 17, caddying for him for the first time, as a birthday present.

“It was a battle,” Stricker said. “The course showed some teeth at times today. Some difficult pins. Some easy pins. But it was a little crustier on the greens. The wind was tricky at times. Yeah, but it feels great. It feels great not only to do it [but to] have Izzi on the bag was even more special. We had a great time this week and that was the goal, just to come here and have a good time with her, and to throw a win on top of it is even icing on the cake.”

Padraig Harrington, who captained the European Ryder Cup team in a loss to Stricker’s American team at Whistling Straits in 2021, was attempting to win the Senior PGA wire-to-wire and took a one-stroke lead into the final round. He surrendered his lead to Stricker on the 11th hole, but pulled even with a birdie at the par-5 18th hole to send it to overtime.

On the playoff hole, Harrington sliced his drive into a penalty area, attempted to slash his ball out with his second shot and left in the penalty area, took a drop, then hit a 5-wood fourth shot from 272 yards to 12 feet of the hole. Stricker, meanwhile, played a 3-wood off the tee, a lay-up second shot, a poor wedge to the green and took two putts for par.

Moments later, Harrington missed his par putt, allowing Stricker to win his 14th senior event, six of them majors. His final round of three-under 69 gave him a 72-hole score of 18-under 270, while Harrington closed with a two-under 70.

“I’ll be disappointed with the tee shot and the second shot,” Harrington said of the playoff hole. “But if I hole the [par] putt we could say it [his 5-wood fourth] was one of the best shots I ever hit. The fact that I didn’t hole the putt, we’ll forget about it. Golf is cruel.”

It certainly can be, and Stricker was prepared to endure his own share of cruelty. “He [Harrington] had a legitimate look at it. And it was kind of the same putt that Stewart Cink had in regulation that he made for eagle,” Stricker said. “So, yeah, I told Izzi, I’m like: ‘Well, we got to expect him to make this and we’re going to go again.’ But, yeah, tough putt, just trying to die it down there and luckily we came out on top.”

The post Steve Stricker wins second straight senior major, this time with teenage daughter Izzi as caddie appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Steve Stricker captured a fifth career senior major title earlier this month with a dominant six-shot victory at the Regions Tradition. The only drawback? He missed his youngest daughter’s birthday. But as payback — literally, with the prospect of a big pay cheque — her birthday present involves another major championship.

Izzi, who is verbally committed to play at the University of Wisconsin already, is on the bag for Steve at this week’s Senior PGA Championship. So, in a way, he’s actually putting her to work for her birthday, but the high school junior doesn’t mind, especially if her dad has a lucrative week at the PGA’s new headquarters in Frisco, Texas.

Steve Stricker's daughter Izzy makes her debut on the bag for him this week @seniorpgachamp.

The best part: this is her birthday gift. ?@stevestricker pic.twitter.com/jcRWOqspxP

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 24, 2023

“This is actually a birthday gift,” Izzi said in a video posted by the PGA Tour Champions. “He was not home on my birthday and he called, and was like: ‘Hey, would you like to caddie for me at the PGA?’ So it’s a cool present.”

Hey, it sounds a lot cooler than a gift card to the local mall. Or, whatever teenagers do these days. And as part of the week in the Lonestar State, Izzi also took in a Dallas Stars playoff game with her dad.

Daddy-daughter date night ?‍???@stevestricker and @IzziStricker watching the @DallasStars and @GoldenKnights battle in Game 3 of the @NHL Western Conference Final. Izzi will be on the bag for her dad this week at the @seniorpgachamp. pic.twitter.com/LUNw4DXhG2

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 24, 2023

But on Thursday the hard work really begins for last year’s Wisconsin high school state champion. Izzi is finding out the hard way that those big staff bags are tough to lug around.

“I’m being humbled out here,” Izzi continued. “My body is not in shape for this.” Here’s the video:

Hang in there, Izzi. With the way your dad has been playing, it will be well worth it.

The post Steve Stricker is giving his daughter Izzi quite an interesting birthday present this week appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The first major of the PGA Tour Champions season was in need of a mercy rule to spare the field the relentless punishment Steve Stricker was inflicting on it Sunday, a bruising victory that went down as a fourth-round knockout and a successful title defence in the Regions Tradition.

Stricker, 56, was tied for the lead at the outset of the final round at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, birdied four of his first five holes to open a four-stroke lead, increased it to six on the back nine, and won by six. It was his third victory in his last four starts in the Tradition, the only blemish a playoff loss to Alex Cjeka in 2021.

Yes, Stricker owns this event. The margins of his three Tradition victories were six strokes each, and he has finished inside the top five in seven of eight starts in the event. His comfort level was on display following a one-hour weather delay on the back nine on Sunday. When play resumed, he holed a 12-foot birdie putt at 15, followed with another birdie at 16, and then took a leisurely victory lap on the final two holes.

He closed with a seven-under-par 65 and a 72-hole total of 23-under 265. Robert Karlsson, who shared the 54-hole lead with Stricker, tied for second with Ernie Els.

The victory was the 13th of Stricker’s senior career, surpassing his total victories on the PGA Tour. It, too, was his second win this season and the fifth senior major of his career.

The field surely knew what was coming on Sunday, given his track record in the tournament, and his second nine in the third round on Saturday. He birdied his last four holes and five of his last six for a back-nine 30, then on Sunday birdied four of his first five holes en route to a four-under 32 on the front to open a four-stroke lead.

“I needed to shoot probably like four-under yesterday on the back nine to kind of stay within reaching distance of Robert and a couple other guys up there,” he said. “Then to get to six-under on the back nine and birdie the last four, and then to come out today and make a statement early, I think that was just as important. Birdied the first three today, so I felt comfortable. My game was good. I rolled in a few putts, hit it close at times. It was a great day.”

The question in the wake of this dominant performance is what it portends for the rest of the season. Stricker has never played what would be considered a full schedule on the senior tour. He played only 12 events last year, none in 2021, when his focus, as US captain, was on the Ryder Cup, and 13 in 2020. Before that, he was still largely committed to playing PGA Tour events.

“I plan on playing,” he said unconvincingly when asked about making a run at the season-long Charles Schwab Cup. “I’m part of the Ryder Cup team [as an assistant captain], there’s other family things I like to do, hunting, my daughter’s playing tour school at the end of the year.”

Other senior tour players no doubt would prefer he be entirely preoccupied with other endeavours as the season progresses, if his dominance in the Tradition is indicative of how the rest of the golf season might go.

But for now, it is Stricker’s tour, and the rest of them are tourists, on the outside looking in.

The post Steve Stricker delivers another knockout in the Regions Tradition, again winning by six appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Stricker, 55, is a former Presidents Cup captain, guiding the 2017 American team to a resounding victory at Liberty National, and recently led the US to a win in last autumn’s Ryder Cup. He competed in five Presidents Cups as a player and was also an assistant to Tiger Woods at the 2019 event at Royal Melbourne. Stricker has 12 PGA Tour career wins and added a senior major championship earlier this year at the Regions Tradition.

“Steve has been a great friend to so many players on the PGA Tour throughout the years, and I know that camaraderie he brings to both the golf course and the team room will be incredibly valuable in September,” Love said in a statement. “As we look at this youth movement on the US team, having Steve as a trusted ally in tense situations is something I know our players will lean on.”

Steve Stricker was the victorious US Presidents Cup captain in 2017 at Liberty National. Chris Condon/PGA Tour

Simpson, 36, has competed in three Presidents Cups, including the 2019 match, as well as three Ryder Cups for the Americans. He is a seven-time tour winner, highlighted by triumphs at the 2012 US Open and 2018 Players Championship. Simpson is also a native of Charlotte and is a member at Quail Hollow.

“I’m excited to see the Presidents Cup contested on my home course in a great sports town like Charlotte, and I know the fans are going to show up with tremendous support for the US team,” Simpson said. “I’ve had the good fortune of playing for Davis in past international events and he will have this team prepared to play each day. It’s an honour to be named a captain’s assistant and I look forward to helping the guys with a bit of course knowledge and a fun, enjoyable team atmosphere.”

The top six players in the US Presidents Cup standings after the BMW Championship will automatically qualify for the event, with Love announcing his captain’s picks after the Tour Championship. The International team’s top eight automatically qualify, with Immelman picking four players to round out his roster after East Lake.

The 2022 Presidents Cup begins on September 20 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. The Americans are the defending champs.

You may also like:
Tiger Woods to set up new tournament at Pebble Beach
Bryson DeChambeau on LIV/PGA feud and his $125m signing-on fee
Phil Mickelson becomes highest-paid athlete of 2022
WATCH: LIV Golf highlights from Bedminster
Stenson takes debut LIV Golf title at Bedminster
LIV Golf takeaways after third event in New Jersey
Five players to watch at the AIG Women’s Open
Australian army target more glory in Scotland
Laura Davies’ unique return to Muirfield
Get the August 2022 edition of Golf Digest Middle East FREE here in English and Arabic
PGA Tour releases full 2022-23 schedule
The Gulf Club: Latest news from the UAE and beyond up to August 2022
Crocker takes the glory at Hero Open
Finau goes back-to-back on PGA Tour
Furue claims Women’s Scottish Open title in style
Henrik Stenson stretches LIV Golf lead
Whirlwind start for Stenson at Bedminster
LIV Golf Bedminster teams revealed
Speaking with Centurion Club’s Scott Evans 
The LIV Golf wrinkle impacting the FedExCup Playoffs
Sergio holds off on quitting DP World Tour
LIV Golf to feature relegation and qualification from 2023
LIV Golf Bedminster: Ready for Round 3
Stenson defends LIV Golf decision
The Gulf Club: The Latest UAE news from July 2022
The Gulf Club: The latest UAE news from June 2022
The Gulf Club: All the latest news from around the UAE and beyond

The post Presidents Cup 2022: Davis Love III names Webb Simpson, Steve Stricker as assistant captains appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
The Senior Players trophy is going back to Wisconsin. Again.

Thanks to three birdies in his final six holes on Sunday at Firestone Country Club, Jerry Kelly pulled away from playing partner Steve Stricker and Schwab Cup leader Steven Alker to capture his second Bridgestone Senior Players Championship in three years. Kelly, 55, won for the 10th time on the PGA Tour Champions and now has finished 1-2-1 in the last three years at Firestone’s South Course.

“It feels great. The first major is awesome, but the second one, even more validation,” said Kelly, who beat fellow Madison resident and close friend Stricker — the defending champion — by two strokes after closing with a two-under 68. His 11-under 269 total was four strokes better than any previous aggregate total at Firestone and eight strokes lower than his winning score in 2020.

Alker finished three back after a bogey at 18 to tie for third with Ernie Els at eight-under 272, marking the Kiwi’s seventh top-three finish in his last eight starts, including a victory in the Senior PGA Championship. Alker shot 69 while Els had a 68 before leaving for the Open Championship at St Andrews.

MORE: The top 100 players at St Andrews rated

Kelly, who shared the 54-hole lead with Alex Cejka, didn’t make a birdie on Sunday until he converted a four-footer at the par-4 13th after hitting what he called “one of the best shots of my life”. From behind trees in the right rough, Kelly sliced a 3-iron utility from 214 yards that he thought was coming in too hot, but the ball hit into the hill and checked up near the hole.

“That kind of opened the door. That was the turning point for me,” Kelly said. “Any tournament you just see, oh, there it was, there’s the break or there’s the shot or there’s the putt. There’s always something that separates. You’ve just got to feed off of it.”

Equally important was that Stricker, who had forged into the lead by going three-under in his first 11 holes, bogeyed the 13th from the greenside bunker for a two-shot swing. Kelly then sank a 15-footer from the front fringe at the 16th to break a tie with Alker after Stricker missed from a similar line. A 10-footer for birdie at the 17th sealed Kelly’s second win in his last four starts.

Stricker also closed with a 68. Cejka had a 73 to end up T-5.

Tracy Wilcox

The victory was especially satisfying for Kelly for several reasons. First, he earned a berth in the Players, one of his favorite events. “That was a big piece of the desire in winning this tournament,” he admitted.

Second, and more importantly, it came with his wife Carol in the gallery even as she continues to undergo treatments for kidney cancer. She also offered her husband some sage advice as they arrived at the course Sunday that enabled him to remain patient.

“Just the fact that she’s here this week,” Kelly said. “The golf course is that special and she’s like, ‘You know what, I want to be there for you. I love that golf course, it’s really cool just to be out there.’

“This is a different world once you step inside these gates over here. It’s an awesome spot,” added Kelly, who is comfortable at Firestone, saying it reminds him Maple Bluff Country Club, his home course in Wisconsin. “I love it that she can appreciate that and that she wanted to come here. She gave me the words stepping out of the car, she just said it doesn’t matter what happens, I want to see the attitude up the entire time. The lid was on the hole for a long time, and I was rolling my eyes, but I was doing it with a smile on my face. That was keeping me in a positive frame of mind knowing that it would come to me because of that. That was all her with that attitude.

“To come out on top is pretty cool.”

You may also like:
Rahm ready for some good breaks at St Andrews
R&A snubs Greg Norman for Open Championship celebrations
Tiger takes a stroll around St Andrews
Xander the man to watch ahead of Open Championship at St Andrews
Ciganda prevails on Ladies European Tour in Spain
Watch: Highlights from the Estrella Damm Ladies Open
Xander on his way to three in a row in Scotland
Spieth shoots down LIV Golf rumours
Ciganda on brink of wire-to-wire win in Spain
Tringale holds onto Scottish Open lead
Fitzpatrick enjoying ‘best form of his life’
Hovland reassures all weekend golfers with horrendous shank
Record prize money at 150th Open Championship
Ciganda holds halfway lead in Spain
Dubai’s Chiara Noja reclaims LETAS Order of Merit lead
Kang to miss more events due to tumour
Rory calls for LIV/PGA talks
Scottish Open is links golf at its finest
Tringale shapes up nicely at Scottish Open
Ian Poulter won’t trade jabs with LIV haters, says there’s ‘space in the calendar for everyone’
Meronk on top of the world at Mount Juliet
Grace shines in Portland 

The post After calming message from cancer-suffering wife, Jerry Kelly captures Senior Players for second time in 3 years appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Michael Bamberger
At the risk of wearing out this hit from a current playlist: The painful beauty of professional tournament golf lies in the adventures a golfer endures on the way to the bottom of the 72nd hole. That has been true for a hundred years and then some. Who can forget Walter Hagen at the 1922 Open Championship at the notorious Royal St George’s? Went around in an even 300. The installments have been coming steadily ever since.

Which brings us to Sunday. In Gee Chun by a shot at the LPGA Championship at Congressional. (Nice!) Xander Schauffele by two at Hartford. (Dude!) And then there was Padraig Harrington at Saucon Valley at the US Senior Open. (Paddy!) He managed three white-knuckle cross-country two-putts on 70 and 71 and 72 to win by a shot over Steve Stricker.

Your yipping correspondent, watching from close range, could barely breathe, so wracked with anxiety was he.
Harrington: 274.
Stricker: 275.

By the way, at one point in the tournament Harrington had a six-shot lead (just as Chun led by seven and Schauffele led by five).

Stricker posted 9-under early, after a stunning 65 on the par-71 Old Course at Saucon Valley, which features three 18-hole courses. After a birdie on 15, Harrington rode 10-under from 16 to the house.

Padraig Harrington. Sam Greenwood

Maybe you saw the billboard on your way to the airport:

Tournament golf. Makes you feel alive. Pass it on.

This question comes to you from one of our new sponsors, Twilight Zone Golf Queries, makers of fine golf trivia questions:
Q: We all know that Phil Mickelson, at age 50, won the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah. Name two 2021 Ryder Cup captains who also made the cut in that championship.
A: Padraig Harrington (Europe) and Steve Stricker (United States).

Yep, Harrington finished three shots behind Mickelson. Stricker finished 10 shots behind Mickelson. Harrington’s T4 at the Ocean Course got him into this year’s Masters. Mickelson did not play in this year’s Masters. He didn’t play in the US Senior Open at Saucon either, though a spot awaited him.

“I wish Phil had played here — I would have liked to have the chance to try to beat him,” Harrington said on Sunday night, Sharpie in hand, signing country-club flags, as winners are always asked to do.

Here’s a foursome of great golf talkers active in the game today: Paddy, Geoff Ogilvy; natural-born talking genius Colin Montgomerie; and (by his own admission) Phil his own self. Maybe you remember Mickelson in the CBS booth with Nick Faldo and Jim Nantz at the 2020 PGA Championship: “Thank you, it’s nice to be here. There are three things I do well: play golf and talk golf.”

You may also like:
DP World suspends LIV Golf players
LIV Golf: Top stars set for Portland
Xander ends his PGA Tour drought
In Gee holds on to win KPMG
Dubai’s Chiara Noja continues to dominate on LET Access Series
Abu Dhabi-based 12-year-old wins in Scotland
All the latest news from around the UAE and beyond
Wolff among latest names rumoured to be joining LIV Golf
WATCH: Highlights of the Ladies European Tour Czech Open
WATCH: Highlights from the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
WATCH: The monster putt that won on DP World Tour
UAE champions to the fore at BMW International Open
Take a look at how Rory outdrove playing partners
Rory calls LIV players’duplicitous’
JT shuts down LIV rumour mill
LIV players permitted to play in Open

The post Padraig Harrington’s win at the US Senior Open is a reminder what a treasure the Irishman is to the game appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
Padraig Harrington went missing for a few years, a leading man relegated to bit roles in a Hall of Fame career that had stalled on the brink. Yet there he was on Sunday in Bethlehem, the last man standing, having delivered a reminder of how good he was and why enshrinement likely is imminent.

Irishman Harrington took a five-stroke lead into the final round on the Old Course at Saucon Valley CC, hung on precariously at times and gamely in the end to win his US Senior Open debut by one. And in so doing he extracted at least a small measure of revenge on Steve Stricker, who finished second.

“It’s tough today from the front and even tougher when it’s Steve Stricker behind me,” Harrington said. “He’s kind of got one up on me. Maybe I owed him one today. He’s certainly had my number a few times.”

Most notably, he had his number in the Ryder Cup last autumn, when Stricker captained the US team to a rout of the European team captained by Harrington.

Great players generally don’t forget how to win, and Harrington once was among the greatest, ranked third in the world at one time (at the height of Tiger Woods’ dominance), when in a two-season span he won consecutive British Opens and a PGA Championship. He was a winner of three other PGA Tour events and 12 other European Tour events in his career.

He had not won a tournament of any sort in six years, however, the last coming in the Portugal Open in 2016, yet with a sizable lead cut to one by Stricker’s closing round of six-under 65, Harrington brilliantly two-putted from long range on the closing three holes for the victory. He shot a one-over 72 for a 72-hole score of 10-under par 274.

“It’s very special,” Harrington, 50, said. “The reason I’m on the Champions Tour, the reason I’m out here, is I want to win. I want to win big events. I went to win majors again. It’s why we do it.”

The final round would have been a victory lap but for Stricker, who played the final 11 holes in six-under and made Harrington prove his mettle in his quest for a long overdue victory.

“I thought if I could get to nine or 10 [under] and he would have had to back up,” Stricker said, assessing his chances. He did get to nine-under with birdies at 17 and 18, then repaired to the clubhouse to see how Harrington’s closing holes would play out. After bogeys at his 10th and 11th holes, Harrington played his final seven holes in one-under.

The difficulty quotient in doing so, however, was ramped up when Harrington his loose approach shots on the final three holes, leaving him with long lag putts. He handled them expertly, getting to within three or four feet of the hole on the closing three greens, and made each par putt dead centre.

You might also like
Xander holds on to win Travelers
WATCH: The monster putt that won on DP World Tour
UAE champions to the fore at BMW International Open
Travelers Day 3 takeaways
WATCH: Highlights of the LET Czech Ladies Open
WATCH: Highlights from the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
In Gee holds on to win KPMG
Dubai’s Chiara Noja continues to dominate on LET Access Series
Abu Dhabi-based 12-year-old wins in Scotland
All the latest news from around the UAE and beyond

The post Padraig Harrington holds off a charging Steve Stricker to win the US Senior Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Two weeks ago Steve Stricker won the Regions Tradition, his fourth senior major title and eighth on the PGA Tour Champions. But he won’t be able to add to that total this week at the Senior PGA Championship.

It all seemed to be going right for Steve Stricker. Having recovered from what he labelled a mystery illness that hospitalised him twice, caused him to lose 25 pounds and forced him to step away from competitive golf for more than 200 days starting last October, the former US Ryder Cup captain had returned to action in April, posting three top-10 finishes in three starts, including a victory the Regions Tradition.

But on Tuesday, Stricker’s comeback was halted when he announced he was withdrawing from this week’s Senior PGA Championship, the season’s second senior men’s major, after testing positive last Friday for COVID-19.

Super bummed that I tested positive for Covid on Friday and have to withdraw from @seniorpgachamp this week! Just a small setback and will look forward to getting back after it when I feel strong again! Good luck to the players, especially my brother in law @MarioTiziani

— Steve Stricker (@stevestricker) May 24, 2022

Stricker’s six-shot win less than two weeks ago marked his fourth senior major title and eighth on the PGA Tour Champions to go with 12 PGA Tour wins. The Senior PGA Championship, however, was one marquee senior event that 55-year-old Wisconsin native had yet to truly contend in, finishing T-41 at Oak Hill in 2019 and T-11 at Southern Hills in 2021.

As Stricker referenced in his social media post, he still has a rooting interest in this week’s event. Mario Tiziani is in the field at Harbor Shores Golf Club in Benton Harbor, Michigan Tiziani is brother to Stricker’s wife (and sometimes caddie) Nikki as well as Stricker’s agent.

You might also like:
DeChambeau withdraws from Charles Schwab
Rory and the PGA have a major problem
18 takeaways from the PGA Championship
Justin has a drive to win
Mito the surprise leader at PGA Championship
Tiger withdraws ahead of PGA Championship final round
Zalatoris putting things right
McIlroy misses big chance at PGA Championship
Rory McIlroy swing analysis
Is Tiger’s style holding him back?
Rory leads the way at Southern Hills
Forget Dubai, check out the prices for drinks at PGA Championship
Dubai golfer Amelia McKee going pro

The post Steve Stricker withdraws from Senior PGA Championship due to COVID-19 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.