Padraig Harrington scorched to victory at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix with the all-time 72-hole scoring record, but outside hopes of taking the season-long Charles Schwab Cup were extinguished.
The three-time major winner concluded with a final-round 65 to finish top of the leaderboard on 27-under par, carding the lowest 72-hole aggregate of his professional career to break Tom Lehman's PGA Tour Champions 72-hole scoring record by a single shot.
The Dubliner needed Steven Alker, his final-round playing partner, to finish outside the top-five to take the Charles Schwab Cup, but the New Zealander was third overall on -19, eight shots behind Harrington with Germany's Alex Cejka the runner-up.
In winning his fourth title of the PGA Champions Tour season, Harrington claimed a winner's cheque of $440,000 to take his overall earnings on the seniors Tour to $3,564,424.
Yesterday's round of 62 was his lowest score on the Champions Tour, and began his round like a man chasing a record score, picking up three birdies in the first five holes.
For the fourth successive day, the 51-year-old claimed birdie at the par-four 12th, while Alker's back-to-back bogeys at 12 and 13 seemed to open up the possibility of slipping down the leaderboard, but a birdie at 14 steadied the ship.
DRAINED FROM 65 FEET 🤯@padraig_h birdies 15 and gets to 26-under @SchwabCupFinale. pic.twitter.com/TpfV6umIPi
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) November 13, 2022
Standing off the green at 15, Harrington sank a 65-foot putt and followed that up at 16 with another fine read on the green to move to -27.
A birdie at the last would have broken Jack Nicklaus's PGA Tour Champions 72-hole record with respect to par, but he was just off with his 10-foot putt to close pout for 65.
Harrington played with Alker throughout the week and called him "a truly deserved winner" of the Cup.
"It's not like he's just come flash in the pan at the end of the year and won a couple events and all of a sudden won the Schwab Cup," Harrington said.
"The pressure's been on him right from the start of the year all the way through. He had a lead and several of us were catching him all year. It's very impressive that he's not just held on, but he's won in style."
Alker, who never won on the PGA Tour, credited Harrington for pushing him all the way.
"Honestly, just having friends and family and the support here this week has been amazing," the 51-year-old said.
"It will come out tomorrow, it will come out tomorrow sometime, but amazing. Playing with Padraig today, it was kind of difficult because do I chase him, do I protect? I just tried to play my game as good as I could, but he played amazing and (I'm) just glad to be champion."
Additional reporting: Reuters
