[Photo: Dylan Buell]
Two players will be chasing history in the final round of the 46th US Senior Open while a third will be trying to change his personal history in the championship while also seeking to set a record.
After a record-tying 64 in the third round at Scioto Country Club, Stewart Cink carries a one-stroke lead over defending champion Padraig Harrington after 54 holes. Cink’s bogey-free round, which tied the low round in a USGA event at Scioto, gave him a nine-under 201 total. The 53-year-old from Georgia is going for his third straight senior major title. No player has won the first three senior majors of the season.
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Harrington, 54, who defeated Cink by one stroke a year ago at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado, saved bogey at the last hole for a 66. He is vying to become the fourth player to successfully defend a US Senior Open title and win his third overall, which would match Miller Barber’s record.
“Today was a day about making the choice to be committed and be willing to accept anything. That has a tendency to free me up. When I play freed up, it’s just the results are usually a lot better, and executing is a lot better,” said Cink, who can join Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Bernhard Langer and Steve Stricker with a third senior major in one year. “Today was a good day. I’d like to bottle some of that up because it’s something that golf doesn’t always offer you. But today I took advantage of it.”
Tee-times will be moved forward on the final day for the second day in a row with the expectation of afternoon thunderstorms.
Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, 62, finished third a year ago at The Broadmoor and was runner-up by one stroke to Gene Sauers at Scioto in 2016. Jimenez bogeyed the 16th and 18th, but he still managed a 67 and six-under 204 total, one behind PGA Tour Champions rookie George McNeill, who shot 69 after holding the 36-hole lead. Jimenez seeks to become the oldest winner of the Francis D. Ouimet Memorial Trophy.
None of the healthy contingent of Australians in the field is better than one-under after 54 holes, Queenslander Michael Wright the best placed at that score, eight shots off the pace in a tie for 11th.
Darren Clarke was also bogey-free on the third day to post 64 after an early-morning shower softened the Scioto layout. He and Cink eclipsed the previous low round in a USGA championship at Scioto, a 65 by Vinny Giles in the 1968 US Amateur. Clarke moved up 36 spots into a tie for fifth at 207 with Paul Stankowski, who shot 68.
Cink and Herrington will reprise their duel from a year ago when the two shared the 54-hole lead, and the Hall of Fame golfer from Ireland emerged with the victory.
“Yeah, it does tend to give a little bit of a special flair about sort of head-to-head thing,” Cink said. “But the scoring… George is only one shot back of Padraig, and then it goes one more shot back [to Jimenez]. It’s not a two-horse race at all. That would be naïve to think we could play like that. But to play Harrington, he’s such a great player, and I’ve admired his game for so long. I think we both kind of bring good out of each other.”
“I’ve done it a few times with Stewart, yeah,” said Harrington, winless this year and coming off a playoff loss to Dicky Pride in last week’s Dick’s Open. “Look, it’s one of those things… there’s lots of cliches in it. You’ve got to play your own game, knuckle down and do your thing. As I said, there will be ebbs and flows. Somebody is going to get a good stretch of holes. Could be two-shot swings on a hole. Who knows? There’s always that sort of thing. You just have to play your own game, do your own thing.”
