Pádraig Harrington’s bid for a second senior major title faded on the final day as he fell to a final round of 74 at the Regions Tradition.
A run of ten successive pars to open his final round came to a shuddering halt when he double bogeyed the par-4 11th which ended his charge. That was compounded by a bogey on the par-5 13th before he carded his only birdie of the day on the 18th to finish in a share of 8th place on ten-under, seven shots behind the winner, Doug Barron.
Barron birdied four of his last seven holes to win by two shots from Stephen Alker on seventeen-under-par after a final bogey-free round of 68.
Barron, claimed his third PGA TOUR Champions victory and despite playing with two hall of famers in Ernie Els and Harrington he felt comfortable.
“I slept decent last night but I woke up at four in the morning. I sleep to a lot of meditation stuff. But I’m gonna tell you, it was an emotional day, cause I didn’t have my best stuff. Between Stricker and Patrick and Ernie, I just didn’t know what to expect.
“I figured, you know, someone would shoot nine under and Stephen Awker of course did it, as he usually does, but I played. I made pars, and I stroked it good. I got one of the best button lessons from my coach back home, Jonathan Fly, last week and I really got my putter going. I felt like I could make an eight -footer again and it was huge, I didn’t hit many fairways; I hardly missed a fairway coming in today.
“I felt like I was in Hartford again when I led after 54 holes as a rookie. Today was just a dream come true to beat all these great players. I mean, to even get the pairing. They’re world-class players, but they’re even better people. That’s what I would tell you, too.”
Darren Clarke carded a 70 for a three-under total.