Harrington joy at first PGA win
Padraig Harrington played 18 sizzling holes in the final round of the Honda Classic. It took two more nail-biting holes in a play-off to win his first PGA title.
Harrington shot a nine-under-par 63 and prevailed in a three-way play-off over Joe Ogilvie and Vijay Singh in two extra holes to win the £2.86m (€4.09m) event.
Harrington finished at 14-under 274, collecting £514,000 (€735,000) for his first victory in his third full year on the PGA Tour.
The Honda Classic continued to be good to players looking for their first tour victory. Harrington became the second straight and ninth golfer to notch his first career win here. Todd Hamilton won last year’s event.
Harrington shot a blistering round that included 11 birdies to vault from a tie for 21st to the play-off. The Irishman birdied 10 of his first 13 holes, including six in a row starting at number eight. His only blemishes were bogeys on the 14th and 15th.
The trio went back to number 18 to begin the play-off and Ogilvie was eliminated with a bogey.
Singh was the only one to find the fairway with his drive but his birdie putt trailed off to the right by inches and he tapped in for par. Harrington drove in the rough and found the rough again on his approach but was able to get up and down, draining a six-footer to force another hole.
On the second play-off hole, Singh and Harrington both found the fairway off the tee and were within feet of each other in the rough to the left of the green.
Singh was inside Harrington after each player chipped onto the green with their third shot and Harrington drained his putt for par. Needing to hole a putt from four feet, Singh pushed it just to the right and the ball lipped out of the right of the hole.
Prior to his victory here, Harrington had a trio of second place finishes on the PGA Tour and has become one of the players mentioned when the dreaded best player never to win a major title is discussed.
Last year, Hamilton used his win here as a springboard to an Open Championship crown.
Result:
Final round scores and totals in the Honda Classic, CC at Mirasol Sunrise Course, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, United States of America (USA unless stated, par 72):
274 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 73 69 69 63 (Won Playoff at 2nd extra hole), Joe Ogilvie 73 66 67 68, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 69 70 64
275 Pat Perez 69 69 67 70
276 David Toms 71 71 67 67
277 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 73 67 64 73, Brad Faxon 69 71 72 65, Brett Wetterich 66 66 72 73
278 Jim Furyk 71 69 70 68, Lucas Glover 70 71 74 63
279 Billy Andrade 69 69 75 66, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 68 72 72 67, Greg Owen (Eng) 72 70 69 68
280 Robert Allenby (Aus) 69 75 68 68, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 72 71 68, Brian Bateman 70 69 71 70
281 Sean O’Hair 69 72 68 72, Nick Watney 68 68 74 71, Neal Lancaster 73 70 72 66, Scott McCarron 72 68 72 69, Lee Janzen 69 64 72 76
282 Kevin Stadler 71 70 68 73, Jay Williamson 73 68 71 70, Tim Petrovic 71 70 73 68, Brian Gay 73 69 70 70, Fred Couples 73 69 66 74, Mark Hensby (Aus) 73 71 66 72, Charlie Wi (Kor) 69 71 70 72, Kevin Na (Kor) 69 69 78 66, Tim Clark (Rsa) 73 66 71 72, Billy Mayfair 72 68 71 71, John Cook 72 72 67 71, Marco Dawson 71 70 70 71
283 Gavin Coles (Aus) 70 74 70 69, Ryan Palmer 70 69 72 72, Joe Durant 70 70 73 70, Todd Hamilton 69 71 72 71
284 Justin Leonard 71 69 71 73, Tim Herron 71 69 70 74, Paul Gow (Aus) 74 69 71 70, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 70 68 72 74, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 67 70 74 73, Robert Damron 70 65 73 76, Brett Quigley 71 66 73 74, Dudley Hart 77 67 73 67
285 Tag Ridings 70 70 73 72, Glen Day 73 70 72 70, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 73 69 70 73, Andrew Magee 72 72 69 72, Glen Hnatiuk (Can) 71 73 72 69, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 72 72 72 69
286 Doug Barron 71 70 72 73, Chad Campbell 64 71 80 71, Scott Gutschewski 74 69 72 71, Tom Gillis 72 70 72 72, Cameron Beckman 70 72 73 71, John Senden (Aus) 71 68 78 69
287 Patrick Sheehan 70 67 77 73, James Driscoll 69 74 73 71, Bob Estes 69 69 77 72, Rob Rashell 73 68 76 70, Tommy Armour III 75 65 73 74
288 Joey Snyder III 70 72 77 69, Mark Wilson 71 70 74 73
289 Brandt Jobe 75 68 75 71, Jason Bohn 71 70 72 76, Graeme McDowell (Irl) 70 73 71 75, Kevin Johnson 73 69 74 73, Vaughn Taylor 72 70 77 70
290 Nick Faldo (Eng) 71 72 75 72, Brian Davis (Eng) 71 70 73 76, Davis Love III 71 69 78 72
291 Craig Parry (Aus) 72 72 75 72, Omar Uresti 70 73 76 72, Dean Wilson 75 67 77 72, Charles Warren 70 72 79 70
293 Jonathan Byrd 70 74 77 72
294 Jeff Sluman 75 69 76 74
298 Jim Carter 73 71 78 76.
