3 days ago
Padraig Harrington captures back-to-back senior majors with win at ISPS Handa Senior Open
Another major, another celebration for Padraig Harrington.
Harrington won the 2025 ISPS Handa Senior Open at Sunningdale in Berkshire, England. He signed for a 3-under 67 in the final round to finish the championship at 16 under, three shots clear of the field.
It's the second consecutive senior major title for the 53-year-old Irishman. He won the 2025 U.S. Senior Open by one shot over Stewart Cink in Colorado Springs last month.
This one is especially meaningful, though, considering Harrington — who won back-to-back Open Championships in 2007 and 2008 — had finished second in the British Senior Open twice before.
"You know, right now I'm just thrilled to have won the tournament and gone out there and played well. I think, yeah, that will seep in. I know you were talking about how I won The Open, to win the Senior Open, there's only five players, so you want to be in that category. I think they are the sort of things that you realize over the next couple of days, the significance of it.
"Right now I'm thrilled, euphoric, that I've gotten it done."
Harrington made eagle on the first hole in his final round Sunday, growing his lead from two to three over Justin Leonard. After posting 32 on the outward nine, it appeared as if Harrington would run away with it, but there was a brief moment on the back nine when that wasn't a sure thing.
Thomas Bjorn charged with three birdies in four holes on Nos. 11-14, but then he made bogey on No. 16 shortly after Harrington made birdie on No. 14, dashing Bjorn's hopes of lifting the trophy.
"I didn't know [Bjorn] did it," Harrington said. "I never look at leaderboards. The only time I saw a leaderboard was on 18. I asked Ronan on 17 what was my lead, and never looked at a leaderboard. Was fully focused on what I was doing.
In the end, Bjorn recorded his second T-2 finish in the 2025 senior major season — the first coming at the Senior PGA Championship in May. After a 63 on Friday, Bjorn sat just one shot behind Harrington entering the weekend, but ultimately couldn't keep up with the Irishman. He finished at 13 under after a 67 on Sunday.
Still, it's another impressive performance from the 54-year-old Dane, who now has five top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour Champions in 2025 to go along with a victory at the American Family Insurance Championship in June.
Leonard also finished at 13 under, earning his third top 10 finish of the season but falling three shots shy of capturing his second win of 2025 and the first senior major of his career. Just last week, Leonard, 53, made the cut at the 2025 Open Championship, which he won in 1997.
"I take a lot of good things from this last couple weeks," Leonard said. "You know, last week I was able to spend a couple days with Mike Thomas and just little mind things and trying to get a little more rotation in the clubface and stuff like that. Still plenty of things to work on but having a week like this where I hit it so consistently and hit it really good off the tee. You know, I'm excited about what's coming up here the rest of the year."
Australian Scott Hend, who competes on the Legends Tour, fired a 5-under 65 on Sunday to snag solo fourth at 12 under. Ernie Els and Cameron Piercy rounded out the top 5 in a tie at 11 under.
Harrington was awarded $447,800 of the $2.85 million purse.
