COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — After leaving one chip in the rough and losing a bit of trust on the greens, Padraig Harrington was looking for something to give him hope heading into what figures to be a tumultuous final day at the topsy-turvy Broadmoor.
A chip-in from 20 yards for birdie on No. 18 did the trick. It gave Harrington a share of the lead, a spot in the final group and left him one more good round away from winning the U.S. Senior Open for the second time in four years.
Harrington’s chip-in Saturday pulled him into a tie with Stewart Cink and Mark Hensby, same as he was heading into the day. Playing in the same threesome, all three shot 2-under 68 to finish at 8-under 202. Only one walked away with that extra pep in his step that comes from making a shot like that.
“It was special to hole out on the 18th, with everybody watching, the anticipation,” Harrington said. “It was very exciting and very nice that I didn’t have to hit another shot.”
One shot behind was Thomas Bjorn, whose 66 matched the best round of the day and set up what appears to be a four-man fight for the title.
Steve Flesch (67) was another three shots back at 4 under, and Steven Alker’s 66 left him at 3 under, tied with Miguel Angel Jiménez (68) and Paul Stankowski (67).
One more shot back was Billy Andrade (70), who collapsed in agony after his approach on No. 17, yet somehow still made par there. It was a fitting picture, given all the pain and confusion the heavily tilted Broadmoor causes, especially when it’s set up for major-championship conditions.
“It’s what you do on those last four or five holes that are fairly tough and ask some big questions,” Bjorn said. “I’m quite sure the pin position tomorrow is going to have more questions for us. That’s where you win the golf tournament.”
Hensby’s worst taste of the greens came on 18. With the gallery still buzzing from Harrington’s hole-out, the Australian, whose 54th birthday is Sunday, left a 6-foot birdie for the solo lead short. It curled hard to the right without reaching the hole.
Even so, Hensby made four more birdies (along with an eagle) to finish Day 3 with 19 for the tournament. Cink, by comparison, has 13. Hensby can take comfort that he, more than anyone, has figured out how to hit from long range on greens that Justin Leonard said are “right on par with trying to putt at Augusta National.”
“You can have a 5-footer that can break 2 feet,” Hensby said. “People go, ‘Ahh,’ when you miss a 4-footer even though you’re aiming at a cup outside left edge and hoping. But it was fun.”
No single putt illustrated this more than Cink’s on the par-3 16th. From just off the green, his birdie attempt curled past the hole and some 30 feet from the flag as the ever-present slope of Cheyenne Mountain took its toll.
Still, he wasn’t complaining after a four-birdie, two-bogey round on a day filled with sun, clouds, wind, rain and even a flash of lightning that pulled the players off the course for a half-hour.
And the 6,000 feet of altitude.
“We hit some shots out there that we really didn’t know what to expect when the ball was in the air,” Cink said. “There was one where on a par-3, on the 12th hole, it was a 228-yard shot, and I hit an 8-iron. How do you figure that kind of stuff?”
Cink and Hensby looked like they’d finish tied for the lead they had shared with Harrington before the Irishman started losing momentum on the back nine.
The three-time major champion needed two chips from the deep rough on the par-3 12th and made double bogey to fall out of the lead. Another bogey came on 15 when he babied a 5-foot par putt and it curled away well before the hole.
“I certainly lost a bit of trust on the green,” Harrington said.
He set up the fabulous finish by yanking his tee shot on 18 into the rough left of the fairway, giving him no choice but to hack out over the lake and short of the green.
But he turned a possible bogey into an unlikely birdie and guaranteed himself a spot in the final group Sunday, where he’ll play in the same threesome (due to weather) as he did Saturday. It also will mark his fourth straight day of going head-to-head with Cink.
“I did want to be in the last group, yes, and the only way I could be in the last group was making that birdie,” Harrington said. “But just because you want something doesn’t mean you can. If it was as easy as that, we’d be all great.”
