Tag: Padraig Harrington

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson highlight 12 sponsor exemptions who won a PGA Tour event since 1990

There are five major champions on this list.

Every PGA Tour event has a handful or so of spots in the field to dole out to golfers who didn’t otherwise qualify.

Those spots may go to a past champion. They often are awarded to a rising star in the game. The strategy there is that perhaps the up-and-comer will remember the courtesy later in his pro career and will become a regular at that particular Tour stop.

Sometimes a sponsor exemption gets doled out to someone noteworthy as a means to drive interest in a tournament, such as former NFL quarterback Tony Romo, who got into the Charles Schwab Challenge, or LPGA star Lexi Thompson, who wowed the Las Vegas crowd last October before just missing the weekend cut at the Shriners Children’s Open.

According to the PGA Tour, since 1990 there have been just 12 golfers to win a tournament after getting a sponsor exemption. There’s been over 1,000 PGA Tour events in that time, proving the long odds a sponsor invite faces.

Here’s the list of those who won on the PGA Tour after receiving a sponsor exemption since 1990.

Padraig Harrington’s thoughtful 3-minute take on how to get kids to love golf is well worth your time

“The love should be first.” Well said.

It’s the clip that’s being shared everywhere days after it was posted: Padraig Harrington, the Irish pro golfer who’s won three majors, was asked before the 2023 PNC Championship how his son, Ciaran, got into the sport his dad plays.

Before Team Harrington shot 7-under for the tournament the Woods family played at, Padraig answered that question with a really thoughtful take on how to get kids into the game of golf: It has to be a stress- and pressure-free environment, and you want to make it special time with your child. They’ll associate it with wonderful times with their parents if that’s the case.

As a fellow parent, I can say he’s nailed it, and it’s not just about getting your kid into a sport. Take the time and watch:

“The love should be first.” Yes, exactly.

With PGA Tour cards on the line, these pros missed the cut at 2023 RSM Classic

The cut at Sea Island Golf Club had more of a sense of finality for some.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — A prominent swing instructor summed up why he could cut tension on the range at the RSM Classic with a rusty nail.

“Some of these guys don’t know whether they will ever tee it up at a PGA Tour event,” he said.

This week is the 54th and final Tour event of the 2022-23 season and so the 36-hole cut Friday had more of a sense of finality for some, especially those battling to make the top 125 and full status for next season or Nos. 126-150 and secure conditional status.

Peter Malnati, who entered the week at No. 116, shot 69-71 (140) and missed the cut and said he’ll be playing the waiting game all weekend. He’s projected No.122. Two three-putts in the first round was uncharacteristic of Malnati and the putter remained cold in the second round. But at least he had the right perspective.

“With or without a Tour card, I’m going to be awesome but I’d rather have one,” he said.

Harry Higgs, who started the week at No. 132 and had missed three straight cuts, made birdie on two of the last three holes to shoot 70 on Seaside Course and make the cut on the number.

All told, 78 golfers shot 4-under 138 or better at Sea Island’s Seaside and Plantation Courses. Higgs didn’t need anyone to let him know what what at stake when he made an 11-foot birdie putt on 18 at Seaside to make the cut.

“No, I know. I know it all too well after this year. Oddly, I wasn’t really that worried about it or focused on it,” he said. “For the last two years I’ve been stressing, worrying about all this shit. And for some reason, I don’t know why, I don’t know that I even said it aloud, I might have just thought it briefly, like I’m just not really going to worry about it this week.”

Patton Kizzire, who entered the week at No. 130, channeled the same philosophy and made birdie on his final two holes at the Plantation Course to make the cut and give himself two more rounds to jump up a few more spots. He’s projected No. 129.

Four players ranked between No. 120 and No. 126 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings entering the week missed the cut: No. 120 Matti Schmid, No. 121 Doug Ghim, No. 123 Troy Merritt and No. 126 Henrik Norlander.

Here’s more about them and some other pros who weren’t so fortunate and had their season come to a premature end. And here are the Saturday tee times for those who did make the weekend.

Perfect weather, low scores galore at Phoenix Country Club for 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Championship

A pair of golfers co-lead at 11 under, and there are 13 within four shots of the lead after 36 holes.

Padraig Harrington finished 27 under to win the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup Championship by a whopping seven strokes.

Ahead of the 2023 rendition of the PGA Tour Champions finale, he noted the layout probably won’t play as it did a year ago

“The course is in fantastic condition,” he said after the pro-am Wednesday. “Certainly seem to have tried to toughen it up a little bit this year. They don’t want to see 27 under par again.”

Halfway through this year, the leaders are on pace to get to 22 under, well shy of what Harrington got to a year ago but nonetheless, low scores were to be had Friday at Phoenix Country Club, where the temperature peaked at 77 under clear, sunny skies.

Harrington had the best round Friday with an 8-under 63, his scorecard featuring eight birdies and no bogeys. He was the first to get to double digits under par, and he’s at 10 under after 36 holes.

The co-leaders are Steven Alker and Marco Dawson, who each shot 64 to get to 11 under. Both golfers birdied Nos. 13, 16 and 18 coming down the stretch. Alker won the 2022 Schwab Cup series title.

“The greens seemed faster today. Ball was flying further for some reason, maybe I was hitting it better, I don’t know,” said Alker. “But it seemed to be going a long way.”

For Dawson, it’s been a while since he contended, he admitted in the media scrum after his round.

Q: When was the last time that you shared the lead, do you remember?

MARCO DAWSON: No, I don’t remember. Maybe at home with my buddies. (Laughs.)

Q: Did you win?

MARCO DAWSON: You know, I think I did.

Tied for third with Harrington is Harrison Frazar, who won the first of the 2023 Schwab Cup Playoff events three weeks ago; Alex Cejka, who posted a scorching back-nine 29. He had six birdies on the second nine, including four straight on Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18; and Thongchai Jaidee, who closed with back-to-back birdies to shoot a 67.

Ernie Els, whose first-round 63 is tied for low round of the week so far, shot a 70 and sits tied for sixth at 9 under along with Richard Green and Stephen Ames.

There are 13 players within four shots of the lead.

The 72-hole, no-cut season-ender concludes Sunday. Steve Stricker, who won the season-long points race before the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs started, will not be there to collect his series trophy. He withdrew late in the day Wednesday after announcing his father was admitted into the hospital.

While the PGA Tour Champions season will come to an end Sunday, Harrington is moving on. He’s on the entry list for next week’s RSM Classic on the PGA Tour, the final event of the 2023 FedEx Cup Fall series.

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Bogey is enough for the final spot in top 36 for 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Championship

Labritz bogeyed three of his last seven holes but held on to the 36th spot in the points standings.

Kevin Sutherland dropped out. Charlie Wi zoomed in. And Rob Labritz, despite a final-hole bogey, held on to the final spot.

The third and final event in the 2023 Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs is here, with the top 36 players in the PGA Tour Champions points standings following the TimberTech Championship earning a spot in the field at Phoenix Country Club.

For the third time in tour history, the finale will lack drama, as the season-long crown has already been claimed by Steve Stricker, who clinched the title after the first playoff event, which he skipped. He also chose not to play this week but indicated a few weeks ago that he will be in the field in Phoenix, Nov. 9-12, saying “I’ll definitely be at the last one.”

Bernhard Langer finished second in the points. Padraig Harrington, who won the TimberTech by a whopping seven shots, ended up in the third spot in the points. He won the season-ending tournament in Phoenix in 2022. Last year’s season-long champ, Steven Alker, finished fourth this time around. Ernie Els nabbed the fifth-place spot.

One up, one down

One golfer moved into the final 36, and that was Charlie Wi, whose final-round 64 vaulted him into a tie for second at the TimberTech and into the 35th spot in the points standings. Kevin Sutherland, winner of the 2020 Charles Schwab Cup Championship, fell out of the top 36, dropping seven spots to 41st after a WD at the TimberTech.

Hanging on

Labritz shot 69-68-71 at the Old Course at Broken Sound and it was just enough to advance. He was flirting with danger, however, shooting a 3-over 38 on the back nine Sunday, including a bogey putt on the closing hole. But he knew bogey would be enough and let it all out after sinking that final critical putt.

The 72-hole, no-cut Charles Schwab Cup Championship would essentially be a four-day victory lap for Stricker, who won six times this season. He played 16 events, finished top 10 in 15 of them and was runner-up five times. His only non-top 10 was right after he returned from serving as vice captain at the Ryder Cup near Rome.

Even a last-place finish in Phoenix would earn Stricker enough money to become the first to surpass the $4 million mark in one season on the senior circuit.

Qualifiers for 2023 Charles Schwab Championship

Pos Player
1 Steve Stricker
2 Bernhard Langer
3 Padraig Harrington
4 Steven Alker
5 Ernie Els
6 David Toms
7 Stephen Ames
8 Jerry Kelly
9 Brett Quigley
10 Alex Cejka
11 Miguel Angel Jimenez
12 Harrison Frazar
13 Y.E. Yang
14 Richard Green
15 Vijay Singh
16 K.J. Choi
17 Dicky Pride
18 Rob Pampling
19 Thongchai Jaidee
20 Paul Broadhurst
21 Darren Clarke
22 Joe Durant
23 Paul Stankowski
24 Ken Duke
25 Robert Karlsson
26 Mark Hensby
27 Justin Leonard
28 Colin Montgomerie
29 Ken Tanigawa
30 Steve Flesch
31 Retief Goosen
32 Marco Dawson
33 Mike Weir
34 Billy Andrade
35 Charlie Wi
36 Rob Labritz

First five out

37 Lee Janzen
38 Paul Goydos
39 Shane Bertsch
40 Scott McCarron
41 Kevin Sutherland

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‘I think we’re back’: Padraig Harrington has high praise for Luke Donald and his European Ryder Cup team

“I believe we’re back to the ’80s, the ’70s where our top players are actually the best players in the world.”

Padraig Harrington watched European Ryder Cup skipper Luke Donald make his six captain’s picks for the 2023 matches later this month and wasn’t surprised by the selections.

He was only surprised that Donald called him the day prior.

“I did get a very polite phone call from Luke telling me I wasn’t getting picked. I think that was polite rather than necessary,” Harrington quipped ahead of this week’s 2023 Horizon Irish Open on the DP World Tour.

“I think Europe is very strong this year. I think we’re back,” he continued. “I believe we’re back to the ’80s, the ’70s where our top players are actually the best players in the world.”

The Europeans currently have three of the top-five players in the world on their 12-man roster bound for Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy, Sept. 29-Oct. 1, but as a former captain himself, Harrington knows the importance of depth and the dangers of being a top-heavy side.

“We need a strong pool of players so that some of the very top players can be rested for the singles. I think that’s the most important thing is that all the players play well,” said Harrington, whose European side was historically beaten 19-9 by the Americans two years ago at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. “We have the best players at the top for sure, but we need all of them to play well so the best players can sit out at least one match.”

43rd Ryder Cup
Vice-captain Luke Donald and captain Padraig Harrington walk across the fifth hole during practice rounds prior to the 43rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits on September 23, 2021, in Kohler, Wisconsin. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

To his core Harrington believes he had a good team with a great attitude in 2021, result aside. If you ask him what happened, he’ll say the COVID-19 year was the difference maker.

“I think we just caught it on our turndown, their upturn. That one extra year of COVID, our team went from peaking to slightly off and never could come back,” he explained. “The U.S. team were peaking. That extra year got them into a great place. Many of the players were probably at their very peak in the U.S. at that stage. If you start looking at the names now with two years of hindsight, they were at the top of their game and the Europeans are only coming into that now.”

Here’s how each roster stacks up with two different ranking systems: the points-based Official World Golf Ranking and the head-to-head Golfweek/Sagarin ranking (more on that here).

U.S. roster and rankings

Player OWGR GW/Sagarin
Scottie Scheffler 1 1
Patrick Cantlay 5 6
Xander Schauffele 6 2
Max Homa 7 10
Brian Harman 9 38
Wyndham Clark 10 9
Jordan Spieth 12 47
Brooks Koepka 15 N/A
Collin Morikawa 19 15
Sam Burns 20 30
Justin Thomas 25 60
Rickie Fowler 26 7

European roster and rankings

Player OWGR GW/Sagarin
Rory McIlroy 2 3
Jon Rahm 3 4
Viktor Hovland 4 5
Matt Fitzpatrick 9 32
Tyrrell Hatton 13 8
Tommy Fleetwood 14 13
Sepp Straka 23 110
Justin Rose 34 37
Shane Lowry 37 56
Robert MacIntyre 54 73
Nicolai Hojgaard 78 62
Ludvig Aberg 90 12

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Paul Casey on the Ryder Cup, LIV Golf and why caddies bought Padraig Harrington a Rolex

“I’ll tell you how good a captain Padraig Harrington was. The caddies bought him a watch.”

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Former European Ryder Cup stalwart Paul Casey won’t be involved in this year’s match in Rome largely because he jumped to LIV Golf, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care anymore about the competition that he played in five times.

Speaking to Golf Digest’s John Huggan recently, Casey opened up on his feelings about this year’s Ryder Cup, which will be held in Rome from Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

The entire article is worth your time, but here are some highlights, starting with touting Padraig Harrington as the best captain he played under despite Harrington’s team suffering a 19-9 defeat at Whistling Straits two years ago:

“I’ll tell you how good a captain Padraig was,” Casey said. “The caddies bought him a watch. They all got together, bought him a Rolex and brought him to tears when they presented it to him in Dubai, a few weeks after the matches. That said so much. Caddies normally don’t like dipping their hands in their pockets for players. But it was actually the flip side of what was going to happen if we won. Padraig was going to buy every caddie a watch. He was so highly respected.”

Casey concedes some of the Euro stars of the past might not have qualified for the team this year even if LIV players were eligible, but their absences will be missed in other ways.

“I would still have [Ian Poulter] be involved. That’s what is going to be missing in Rome, guys like Poulter and [Lee] Westwood in the locker room. I’ve been in those locker rooms. The pundits and the commentators have not.”

Paul Casey of the European Team celebrates holing a long birdie putt to win the second hole in his match against Brooks Koepka of the United States Team during singles matches of the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National on September 30, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

Casey hopes as the divisiveness in golf is repaired, the Euro LIV players can be brought back into the fold.

“The Ryder Cup is so valuable in terms of what it gives to golf in Europe, not just monetarily. We don’t want that to be damaged any more than it has been already. I don’t watch a lot of golf outside of the majors. But I will certainly watch the Ryder Cup. And I might just have a piece of Euro team clothing on under my top. I won’t have the commentary on though,” he said with a laugh.

Casey said he has no regrets about his move to LIV.

“Moving to LIV has changed me for the better as a person” he says. “I was probably in a spiral before, and not in a good way. There are so many things people don’t necessarily want to hear from pro golfers. Whatever the sport. But I was trying to play multiple tours. Then there were team matches and the Olympics and all the rest of it. It was taking its toll. Look, I still want to do what I do. But something had to give. I just don’t want to do it all as often.”

The whole story can be read here.

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Alex Cejka beats ‘brutal’ conditions, Padraig Harrington to take Senior British Open

This victory was as much about perseverance as it was shotmaking.

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Alex Cejka sat over a short putt with a chance to clinch the Senior British Open yet he took nothing for granted. With wind and rain whipping through Royal Porthcawl Golf Club, Cejka had seen his share of misjudged shots over the past few hours to think this was a gimme.

For example, Cejka witnessed Padraig Harrington flub a chip while just off the green on the pivotal hole. He watched players and fans trying to steady themselves through incredible gusts along the Bristol Channel shores.

Still, Cejka took an extra look at the putt and knocked it home, earning his third PGA Tour Champions title — all majors — when he topped Harrington by making birdie on the second hole of a playoff.

The 52-year-old German — who won the Regions Tradition and the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in 2021 — realized this victory was as much about perseverance as it was shotmaking.

“I still can’t believe it. It was a really, really long week, really, really long weekend, and really, really long day today, playing those two extra holes. But I’m just delighted. I didn’t really make great shots down the stretch but I somehow made incredible pars,” Cejka said. “Going into the playoff, I really thought if I pull a couple good swings off, I might have a chance against Pádraig. It’s really difficult but it’s one on one. I’m so pleased. I still can’t believe it.”

While Cejka’s victory will be the headline, the real story was the unrelenting weather, which caused fits for many of the players. Colin Montgomerie finished the day with an 88, and that didn’t even qualify as the highest score of the day — that honor was reserved for Patrik Sjoland, who finished the day with an 89.

A total of 26 players came in with scores of 80 or higher on Sunday and Rob Labritz’s 71 was the low score of the day, although it followed a third-round 86.

Cejka finished the day with a 76, stumbling home with a pair of bogeys on the final three holes to slip into the playoff with Harrington, who needed a birdie on the final hole to force the extra golf. The Irishman had a 20-foot eagle putt that would have won the tournament on No. 18, but the ball stopped short while rolling into a heavy wind.

“You’ve got to take those opportunities. You’ve got to really give those a go,” Harrington said. “I’ll look back at that and really feel like I should have run that. But obviously, the one on the first playoff hole could have gone in but that would have been a decent break.

“Obviously, second shot then on 18, second time around, sometimes that happens to me. I’m trying to hit a three-quarter 9-iron, and you get over the ball and you’re focused on the shot and end up hitting a normal 9-iron, which is too much. So that was disappointing in the end.”

As for the conditions, Cejka said this was simply a battle of attrition.

“It’s brutal. You can’t hold a balance, even when you’re putting, and you’re trying to punch drivers,” he said. “You have wet hands, wet grips. You have a 40-mile-an-hour crosswind, so it wasn’t easy as you can see on the scores. They were brutal the last two days. I’m just so glad it’s over and I’m glad I have the trophy.”

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Watch: This pair of pros missing short putts will give you nightmares

Remember, next time you’re playing golf with your buddies, there are no gimmies. 

Close your eyes, hide the kids, run away.

Professionals can miss gimme putts, too.

Look no further than this week’s Korn Ferry Tour event in Illinois, the NV5 Invitational. Tom Whitney had mere inches to clean up a putt. So he did what any pro does, he walked over, turned around and dropped his putter. He took a swipe at the ball from what could only be described as a couple of inches from the cup.

It lipped out. The ball never had a chance to go in. It missed and then went about three feet away. Whitney stood there stunned, and the Barstool Sports TV broadcast was in disbelief.

Whitney isn’t the only one who missed a short putt. Enter Padraig Harrington, a major winner playing in the Senior British Open. He missed a short putt that touched every inch of the cup’s edge but didn’t somehow fall.

Remember, next time you’re playing golf with your buddies, there are no gimmies.

Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Padraig Harrington, more dissect Royal Liverpool

Shot-making and creativity, on the endangered species list in the American game, will be at a premium this week.

HOYLAKE, England – Max Homa prepped by logging on to YouTube and watching Tiger Woods’s domination in 2006. Rickie Fowler said it would be a pretty good idea for him to do the same and soak in the memory of finishing second to Rory McIlroy in 2014. Adam Scott enjoyed a late Monday evening stroll alongside defending champion Cameron Smith to reacquaint him with a place where the vibes are good — he’s the only player in the field this week to finish top 10 in the last two Opens here.

Royal Liverpool is this week’s host of the 151st British Open and it has been nine years since it last hosted the championship when McIlroy prevailed. Before Woods won in 2006, the course had been out of the Open rotation since 1967, when Roberto de Vincenzo beat Jack Nicklaus by two shots. Count noted writer Bernard Darwin among the legions of fans of the course: “Hoylake, blown upon by mighty winds, breeder of mighty champions.”

Indeed, it is a place where the cream typically rises to the top, including where Bobby Jones won the Open in 1930, as part of his unmatched Grand Slam year.

Open Championship 2023: Leaderboard, scores, news, tee times, more

Shot-making and creativity, two features that have been on the endangered species list in the American game, will be at a premium this week. Here’s how some of the contenders have prepped for the unique challenge that awaits them.