The Irishman fired the best round of the day, a four-under 66, and coasted to his 12th win on the PGA Tour Champions and his fourth major title on that circuit. With a 12-under 268 total, Harrington notched only his third win in the past two years \u2013 but they are all of the major variety. In 2025, the World Golf Hall of Famer edged Cink by a stroke to win the US Senior Open and then captured the Senior Open Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to say it feels great, but obviously there wasn\u2019t the drama that I know we normally provide down the stretch,\u201d said Harrington, who trailed Cink by a stroke after 54 holes but cruised to a four-stroke victory to pocket $US800,000 to go along with a third Francis D. Ouimet Memorial Trophy. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that I wasn\u2019t feeling it. I was really trying to stay in it, stay focused. I knew I had a nice lead which let me play to the middle of the greens, let me hit the shots that I did. I hit some big shots coming on the way home to take all the stress out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simply the best!@padraig_h<\/a> has his third U.S. Senior Open championship! pic.twitter.com\/pvjWhLI1ZT<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 USGA (@USGA) July 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Vying to become the first player to win the first three majors of the year, Cink struggled with his driver much of the day, and only a birdie at the last enabled him to salvage 71 and a 272 total for his second straight runner-up finish in the US Senior Open. George McNeill, the only other legitimate contender, also shot 71 to end up third at six-under 274. LIV Golf League player Ian Poulter<\/a> closed with a 67 to finish another stroke behind in fourth place.<\/p>\n \u201cGolf got hard for me today, and it happens,\u201d said Cink, 53, who had won the Tradition and Senior PGA Championship earlier this year. \u201cIt\u2019s been a while since I had a day like that where start to finish it pretty much felt difficult, but today it kind of did, and my scorecard pretty much tells the story.\u201d<\/p>\n That story was written early.<\/p>\n Harrington, who joined Barber, Gary Player and Allen Doyle in winning back-to-back US Senior Open titles, flipped a one-stroke deficit into a three-shot lead by the third hole and never looked back. The Irishman birdied the first two holes from 18 and three feet, respectively, while Cink bogeyed the second and third holes after missing the fairway. But the deciding blow came at the long par-4 eighth. Cink, after climbing back with two shots, was staring at a bogey putt after driving into the water when Harrington guided home a big-bending 30-footer for birdie.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a big hole. We are so in the present that we don\u2019t always feel those momentum shifts, but looking back, I\u2019m sure it probably did\u2026 That was a big 15 minutes,\u201d Cink said. \u201cThen also, I missed my putt on nine. Hit it tight on nine, had about a seven, eight-footer. That little series of events there for 20, 25 minutes there was a big deal. It could have flipped my way, and it didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Harrington agreed. \u201cI think eight was a big hole in the sense of him making bogey, but also me holing the putt and George missing the putt [from 10 feet]. It was a big hole all around because Stewart\u2026 a two-shot swing with Stewart, but George thinking that if anybody is going to make birdie, he\u2019s going to be invigorated by that. But I holed a long putt and he misses.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo: NurPhoto<\/p>\n \u201cPadraig has always been a world-class player,\u201d said McNeill after an encouraging US Senior Open debut. \u201cHe did the right things. Hits the right shots. Hits it fairly straight. Good short game. Makes a lot of putts. He does what he\u2019s supposed to do \u2013 what a good player, a world-class player, you would expect of him.\u201d<\/p>\n In the midst of eight straight tournaments, Harrington now proceeds to the Scottish Open and Open Championship, the latter which he won twice to go with a PGA Championship victory. Winning a third US Senior Open sets him up nicely before taking on the younger pros for two weeks. No one has won more is another way of looking at it.<\/p>\n \u201cI like creating records, and to be part of that is a big deal. It just goes to show how hard it is,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully I have a few more chances in me, as well. But I like that. No one has won more Senior Opens than me, which considering the people who would have played it over the years, that is a nice stat to put on my CV. I might have to put that right up at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n ![\"2284204923\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2026\/7\/GettyImages-2284204923.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.644.suffix\/1783277977829.jpeg\")
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