Posted March 2, 2015, 1:19 pm
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Harrington earns Masters invite

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Padraig Harrington, right, shakes hands with Daniel Berger, left, after winning the Honda Classic golf tournament on the second hole of a playoff, Monday, March 2, 2015, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Padraig Harrington is back in the Masters Tournament after the Honda Classic finally ended early Monday afternoon with the Irishman winning on the second hole of sudden death.

Harrington, who hadn’t won on the PGA Tour in six years and entered this week at PGA National ranked 297th in the world, was a changed man during the completion of the weather-delayed final round, especially on the greens.

He kept it up in the playoff, beating 21-year-old Daniel Berger, who was bidding to become the youngest winner in the 43-year history of the tournament.

Instead, Harrington, who won this tournament in 2005 when it was played at Mirasol, and was playing on a sponsor exemption, became the oldest winner at age 43.

Harrington and Berger finished at 6-under 274, with Harrington earning the $1,098,000 first-place check.

He played the final 11 holes of his final round Monday in 3-under-par to finish with 70. He rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to force the playoff with Berger, who shot 64 with birdies on his final two holes and finished almost an hour before Harrington.

Harrington kept up his clutch play in the playoff. After both men parred the 18th hole, Harrington hit the best shot of the day on the par-3 17th hole to within 3 feet.

“I said, you know, I’m first up on the tee, I’ve got to take control of this. I’ve got to hit the shot,” Harrington said.

Berger then knocked his shot in the water. After he made double bogey, Harrington missed his putt, but the par still gave him the victory, the sixth of his PGA Tour career and 20th worldwide.

“I never have trouble hitting a big shot at a big time,” Harrington said. “I’m a better player when I have a lot of clarity. When I come back to real time, I have to hit the shot.”

Harrington, who played in the Masters from 2000-2013 but missed last year, is now heading back to Augusta National Golf Club, though he wasn’t processing that just yet.

“It’s not about what it means to my career or what it means going forward,” Harrington said. “You don’t win that often. When you win, make sure you enjoy it. So that’s where I’m at this moment. And in time, I will start to see things like invitations to the Masters and that. But right now, I won on the PGA Tour this week.”

Because he didn’t have status on the tour this year, Harrington has accepted sponsor exemptions to four tournaments leading into the Masters. With the win, he has exempt status on the PGA Tour through 2017, but he said he will honor the exemptions.

“Clearly, I’m in the Masters and I have to focus on that,” he said, “but that is terrible preparation for the Masters.”

At his lowest point during his slump, Harrington had dropped to 385th in the world. His highest-ranking had been fourth after he won the PGA Championship in 2008, his third major championship.

“You do see some changes. You kind of go from the penthouse to still some pretty nice hotels. I wasn’t quite down to the doghouse, but not far off from it. There’s no doubt on your way down it’s a lot different,” said Harrington, who moved up to 82nd in the world after the victory.

The stoppage of play because of darkness on Sunday night came at the perfect time for Harrington, who played his final four holes in 3-over, missing three short putts and trailed the leaders by four shots.

“Things were not going well for me,” he said.

He worked on his putting in the dark on Sunday night and came out firing on Monday, striking for four birdies in a row (Nos. 11-14).

“I had a good day; the putts

were dropping,” he said.

He fell out of the lead with a water-drenched double bogey on No. 17, but made the clutch birdie on No. 18 to catch Berger, who was the hometown favorite and had played his final 20 holes in 8-under.

Berger, who was born in nearby Plantation, Fla., went to Florida State and lives in the area in Jupiter.

“If you told me I was going to finish solo second when the week started, I’d probably take it. Right now, not as happy as I wish I was,” Berger said.

It was a disappointing day for former Augusta State All-American Patrick Reed, who won his other event this season on a Monday.

Reed, seeking his fifth PGA Tour win, shot 73, breaking a streak of 21 consecutive rounds of par-or-better. He tied for seventh place, three shots out of the playoff.

Reed had a share of the lead with Harrington with five holes to play, but was caught in the Bear Trap (Nos. 15-17). He played it in 4-over with a double bogey on No. 15 and bogeys on Nos. 16 and 17. His downfall started when he hit it on the water on the 15th hole.

“I actually think I hit a good iron shot, It just kind of ballooned on me,” said Reed, who was 3-over on the 11 holes he played Monday morning.

“It was a rough day,” said Reed, who said he was fighting his game in the final two rounds. “There are times when you don’t have your A game and you feel like you’re struggling a little bit and still be be to finish inside the top 10, it’s always good. It’s my best finish here at Honda so that’s a good thing.”

Reed isn’t worried about his swing – which led to numerous misses to the left off the tee in the final two rounds – as he heads to Doral this week, where he is the defending champion.

“All I’ve got to do is hit a couple of balls on the range and tighten things up,” Reed said. “Just a matter of tweaks here and there. I should be fine.”

Also disappointed was Ian Poulter, who shared the lead before Monday’s finale, hit three balls in the water Monday (and five in the final round) to shoot 74 and tie for third place with Russell Knox and Paul Casey, who both shot 68s.

“It’s a shame to hand tournaments away, but that’s what I did,” Poulter said.

Padraig Harrington

Masters Record

Year	Place	Score	Round				Money
Year	Place	Score	1	2	3	4	Money
2013	81	+9	78	75			$ 10,000
2012	8	-4	71	73	68	72	$ 232,000
2011	75	+5	77	72			$ 10,000
2010	54	+5	74	75			$ 10,000
2009	35	E	69	73	73	73	$ 38,625
2008	5	-2	74	71	69	72	$ 273,750
2007	7	+5	77	68	75	73	$ 233,812
2006	27	+4	73	70	75	74	$ 49,700
2005	51	+5	72	77			$ 5,000
2004	13	E	74	74	68	72	$ 125,667
2003	50	+6	77	73			$ 5,000
2002	5	-6	69	70	72	71	$ 212,800
2001	27	-1	75	69	72	71	$ 40,600
2000	19	+3	76	69	75	71	$ 53,820

Harrington earns Masters invite

Masters Record

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