Padraig Harrington watches his tee shot on the ninth hole during Kaulig Companies Championship: Pro-Am at Firestone Country Club on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 in Akron Coming into the day at the U.S. Senior Open, three golfers were tied atop the leaderboard. And by the end of the day Saturday at Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, the same three golfers continued to share the lead.
Stewart Cink, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and Australia’s Mark Hensby shot matching 2-under-par 68s on a windy day to go into the final round at 8-under 202 for the tournament.
“I thought all of us played really similar,” Cink said. “No, I’m not surprised. The level of golf on the PGA TOUR Champions and especially at a tournament like this is just really, really high, and you’ve got to play really good golf to even be in the mix, much less win.”
Cink and Harrington matched one another’s pace, with four birdies over the front nine placing each in strong position. Yet each struggled on the back nine.
Cink, chasing his second win of a strong 2025 season, couldn’t break par again, suffering bogeys on Holes 13 and 16.
“We had it going (early),” Cink said. “We’d forgotten who made birdies on what holes. That was a good thing. Unfortunately, it didn’t last more than another two holes after that because the back nine was a little more — it played more difficult, but it was also a little scrappier.
It was much the same for Harrington, who won this event in 2022, as he had a disastrous double bogey on 12, followed by a bogey on 15, before he rescued a birdie on 18 to save a share of the lead.
“It’s always great to chip in,” Harrington said. “It was great to chip in on the last hole. It was straightforward on the green, but I was chipping against the grain. There was quite a bit of grain on that slope. So getting good contact was never going to be easy.
“Yeah, I was very happy with the chip, and it was a big bonus that it went in.”
Hensby, who was even par through eight holes, stepped onto the par-5, 547-yard ninth a full three strokes behind Cink and Harrington. But his three-shot eagle put him right back into contention. He maintained the pace with bogeys on 10 and 17 and back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14.
“Listen, when you get two great players (Harrington and Cink) like that who start off as well as they did, you kind of expect it to a certain extent, but I just felt like I’ve just got to play my game and try and just do the best I can do all day and see what happens,” Hensby said. “Fortunately, some things started to go my way, got a couple of nice breaks, and yeah.”
Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, who was three strokes behind the leaders on Friday, is now just one stroke behind after his 4-under 66 kept him in solo fourth place. Bjorn is chasing his second win of the season (American Family Insurance Championship).
The only other golfer within four of the leaders is Steve Flesch, who made up a stroke with his 3-under 67 and sits alone in fifth.
There’s a three-way tie for sixth at 3 under between Australia’s Steven Alker (66), Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez (68) and Paul Stankowski (67).
Billy Andrade shot an even-par 70 to stay at 2 under in ninth place.
South Africa’s Ernie Els (68) and Japan’s Katsumasa Miyamoto (67) are tied for tenth at 1 under.
–Field Level Media
