Toilet issue delays Padraig Harrington at Senior PGA Championship

Padraig Harrington made an uncharacteristic double-bogey during the third round of the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.

But there was a reason for this. A rather bizarre one at that.

The 2008 PGA champion was 5-under-par for the day and hadn’t made a bogey all week to that point in Texas.

But after hitting his tee shot on the par-4 16th hole at PGA Frisco, Harrington rushed to the toilet.

“Sixteen came out of nowhere. So, essentially, I went in the toilet,” Harrington explained afterward. “The door was locked.

“Took me a few minutes to realise there wasn’t somebody in there, another while to get the door open. As we are on the Champions Tour, I had the longest pee ever. And then I rushed down the fairway and hit my shot.

How impressive is that! 👏 pic.twitter.com/RTyRawB2va
— National Club Golfer (@NCG_com) May 28, 2023

“I just wasn’t focused. I wasn’t into it, and I hit a bad shot in the hazard. The second one was a bad lie, so I blast that out.”

Being the three-time major champion he is, and the reigning US Senior Open champion, Harrington birdied the final hole to card a 68 to take a one-shot lead over Steve Stricker into the final round.

The Irishman has had somewhat of a resurgence in 2023 – mainly marked by a fourth-placed finish at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January.

He made the cut at the recent PGA Championship, won by Brooks Koepka, and also finished tied for 10th at the Valero Texas Open in April.

But at 51 years of age, his new lease on life has been most evident on the PGA Tour Champions with four victories in total since the start of the 2022 season.

He hasn’t added to this tally in 2023 just yet, coming closest at the Chubb Classic when he was three shots behind the timeless Bernhard Langer.

As well as the quality of his game, it’s clear his sense of humour hasn’t dwindled either.

“So, when you get over 50, it sometimes takes a long time to have a pee,” he added. “That’s my excuse. That’s got to be original, I would assume.”

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Matt Chivers

Now on the wrong side of 25, Matt has been playing golf since the age of 13 and was largely inspired to take up the game by countless family members who played golf during his childhood.

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