With a final round of 3-under-par 67, Padraig Harrington won the 90th PGA Championship Sunday by two strokes over Sergio Garcia.
Harrington shot a 32 on the back nine, just as he did at Royal Birkdale last month, and he came up with three big putts down the stretch. He made a 12-foot par on the 16th to catch Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis, took the lead with an 8-foot birdie on the par-3 17th, then closed out the Spaniard with an 18-foot par for a two-shot victory.
“I think I was willing them into the hole at that stage,” Harrington said. “You have to get focused and give it a go.”
The Irishman ended Europe’s 78-year drought in the PGA Championship, and he joined Tiger Woods, Nick Price and Walter Hagen as the only players to win the final two majors in the same year. Woods did it twice, in 2000 and 2006.
What a two years for Harrington. He won the 2007 U.S. Open, the 2008 U.S. Open and now the 2008 PGA Championship. Garcia was one of the early favorites to win the PGA Championship this year, but Harrington stuck around long enough and played well down the stretch to pick up his fifth career tour win.
Now if only Joey Harrington could play football as well as his cousin plays golf. Then the sports world would be taking about the Harrington’s instead of the Manning, Bonds and Andretti families. Or not…
