<p>Scottie Scheffler. via Twitter.com/PGATour</p>
Pádraig Harrington claimed his eighth win on the PGA Tour Champions and a timely boost for this week’s US Senior Open when he closed with a four-under 68 to complete a hat-trick of victories in the Dick’s Open in New York.
Tied for the lead with Stephen Ames and Ken Tanigawka overnight, the Dubliner (52) made an eagle and three birdies in a four-under outward nine to take the lead at En-Joie Golf Club.
He was tied briefly when he sucked a wedge off the green into water and bogeyed the 10th but birdied the 15th and followed key up-and-down at the 17th with a closing par to win by a shot from Canadian Mike Weir on 15-under and claim $315,000.
"I suppose I'm good value for money really,” Harrington joked after winning in his first start since being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. “When I was coming down that stretch, you're not really sure what you're going to get.
"I'm either going to hit it stone dead or I'm gonna have to get it up and down out of some weird place. It's entertaining. I wish it wasn't as entertaining.”
On the PGA Tour, Scottie Scheffler claimed his sixth win of the season and a little place in the history books when he closed with a bogey-free 65 before beating Tom Kim with a par at the first extra hole in the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.
The world number one (28) started the day a shot behind Tom Kim before relentlessly claiming his 12th career win.
He followed birdies at the sixth and seventh with three in a row from the 13th to take the lead to the 18th, where protesters invaded the green and scattered powdered paint
#BREAKING Climate Activists Spray Smoke as they STORM THE GREEN at the 18th Hole of the PGA Tour as SCOTTIE SCHEFFLERS was finishing his game. pic.twitter.com/zfHJn68gQd
— Oliya Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) June 23, 2024
Kim made a 10 footer for birdie at the 18th to shoot 66 and match Scheffler on 22-under but plugged his approach in a bunker at the 18th in sudden death and made a bogey.
Scheffler then two putted for victory to become the first man since Arnold Palmer in 1962 to win six times in a PGA Tour season before July.
“He's one of my good buddies,” said Scheffler, who regularly plays gofl with Kim in Dallas. “It's always fun competing against your friends, but it's also really tough. I feel for him there in the playoff, but I told him he's a great player and a great champion and I'm proud of him and the putt on 18 was pretty sweet and I'm sure that's something that he'll remember for a long time.”
As for the round and the protest, Scheffler added: “We were able to sit there and kind of relax each other because you don't really know what's going on, you don't really understand the situation, you don't really -- there's people running around everywhere and you don't really know what's going to happen. So it was a bit confusing.
“Fortunately, the police did a great job of getting everything in order very quickly. I don't know how quick it was, but it seemed really fast to us. So we're very thankful for them.”
WShane Lowry tied for ninth on 17-under after a 67 and headed home for a three-week break while Seamus Power took a big step towards qualifying for the FedEx Cup playoffs for the fourth year in a row when he made eight birdies in a seven-under 63 to tie for 20th on 13-under.
The West Waterford man was projected to move up to 62nd in the standings with the top 70 set to qualify for the first playoff event in August.
On the DP World Tour, Tom McKibbin clinched his fifth top-10 of the season when he closed with a six-under 65 to finish sixth in the KLM Open on nine-under.
He finished just two shots outside a playoff that saw Italy’s Guido Migliozzi beat Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult and England’s Joe Dean with a birdie at the second extra hole.
Migliozzi birdied two of the last three holes to shoot 70 and match Dean and Kinhult, who shot 68s to set the clubhouse target.
Dean joined Migliozzi in claiming a place in The Open at Royal Troon by virtue of his higher world ranking.
But McKibbin, who jumped five spots to 20th in the Race to Dubai, can still make it to Troon and avoid Final Qualifying by winning one of two spots at the Italian Open this week.
He can also make it by being among the top five, not otherwise exempt, inside the top 20 in the Race to Dubai after the BMW International Open on July 7.
At the Blot Open de Bretagne in Brittany, Kilkenny’s Mark Power clinched the first top-20 finish of his Challenge Tour career, closing with a two-under 68 to tie for 17th on six-under.
The former Walker Cup star (24) finished 14 strokes behind England’s John Parry, who beat Sweden’s Per Längfors with a par at the first extra hole to clinch his third Challenge Tour win and his second this season to move up to second in the Road to Mallorca standings.
Parry (37) entered the final round with a three-shot lead, but after posting a two-under 68, he ended up tied on 18-under with Längfors, who posted a five-under 65 at Golf Bluegreen de Pléneuf Val André.
Ruaidhri McGee shot 71 and Alex Maguire a 70 to tie for 20th on five-under with Dermot McElroy 33rd on two-under after a 70.
Ronan Mullarney’s 74 left him 58th on two-over with Jonathan Caldwell 68th on six-over after a 79.
Conor Purcell, who took the week off, remained at 20th in the race for 20 DP World Tour cards via the Rankings with Gary Hurley, who missed the cut in the KLM Open, still 21st.
In amateur golf, 12 Irish players will tee it up in the first qualifying round of the 121st Women’s Amateur Championship at Portmarnock today.
Sara Byrne, Olivia Costello, Beth Coulter, Áine Donegan, Emma Fleming, Anna Foster, Marina Joyce Moreno, Kate Lanigan, Ellen O’Gorman, Katie Poots, Jessica Ross and Annabel Wilson will be bidding for a victory that rewards the winner with starts in the AIG Women’s Open, the US Women’s Open, The Amundi Evian Championship and by tradition, the Augusta National Women's Amateur.
Eight Irish women have claimed the title: May Hezlet (1899, 1902, 1907), Rhona Adair (1900, 1903), Kitty MacCann (1951), Philomena Garvey (1957), Maureen Madill (1979), Lillian Behan (1985), Stephanie Meadow (2012) and Leona Maguire (2017).
Article Link: Harrington and Scheffler win as Lowry, Power and McKibbin enjoy super Sundays - News - Irish Golf Desk