FRISCO — Steve Stricker beat Padraig Harrington on the first hole of a playoff in the Senior PGA Championship on Sunday, giving Stricker a sweep of the first two senior majors of the season.
Harrington forced the playoff with a short birdie putt on the par-5 18th, but put his drive in the replay of the hole in deep grass on the right side of the fairway.
After a failed attempt to hack the ball out, the 51-year-old Irishman dropped 285 yards away and put a fairway wood within 15 feet. Stricker missed a second consecutive putt to win on 18, but Harrington couldn’t make the par putt to extend the playoff.
Stricker and Harrington, who was trying to become the first wire-to-wire winner of the Senior PGA since Rocco Mediate in 2016, finished 18 under. Stricker shot 3-under 69 and Harrington 70.
Stricker’s sixth senior major title came two weeks after the 56-year-old American won the Regions Tradition for the second consecutive year.
Harrington’s first PGA Tour Champions title was the U.S. Senior Open last year, when he held off Stricker by a stroke in a duel of the opposing Ryder Cup captains from 2021.
They were at it again in the first event on the Fields Ranch East course at the new headquarters of the PGA of America. The venue in Frisco, about 35 miles north of Dallas, is set to host the PGA Championship in 2027 and 2034 with talk of the Ryder Cup coming in the late 2030s.
Stewart Cink, playing with Stricker and Harrington but never threatening to crash their two-man battle, made a 60-footer for birdie 2 at No. 17 and eagled the par-5 18th to finish two shots back. A week after turning 50, Cink finished his Champions debut with a 69.
South Korean and Dallas resident Y.E. Yang, the 2009 PGA champion, was alone in fourth at 11 under after a 70. Defending champion Steven Alker shot 71 to finish 9 under along with Miguel Angel Jimenez and Darren Clarke.
All five of Stricker’s previous senior major wins were by six shots, but this time he came from behind, erasing a five-shot deficit in the final nine holes of the third round to set up another two-player match.
Stricker, who extended his Champions tour record with a 49th consecutive round of par or better, took a two-shot lead with a chip-in for birdie at the 220-yard, par-3 13th to answer a bogey at 12.
Harrington narrowed the deficit to one with a birdie at the short par-4 15th. After both made bogey at 17, Harrington missed an eagle attempt at 18 to give Stricker a putt for the win. Stricker missed from about 18 feet, and Harrington made a short putt to force the playoff.
The lead began slipping away from Harrington on Saturday when a bathroom break started a sequence that led to a double-bogey, his first over-par hole of the tournament, at the par-4 16th.
Harrington had another adventure on the same hole in the final round when a wayward tee shot hit a fan in the head down the left side, caroming almost all the way back to the fairway.
After putting his second shot on the green, Harrington greeted the fan sitting in a cart and holding what appeared be a napkin on his head wound. After giving him a signed glove, Harrington took out his wallet and gave the fan cash.
