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Sporting success and failure is often decided by the slimmest of margins, and while there was disappointment for Pádraig Harrington in Dubai, Stephanie Meadow retained her LPGA Tour status with nothing to spare in Florida.
Only the top 100 in the Race to CME Globe standings kept their cards after last night’s Pelican Women’s Championship in Tampa and they included 29-year-old Meadow, who moved from 101st to 100th and avoided a trip to the Q-Series when she recovered from a double-bogey six at her 11th hole and carded a level-par 70 to tie for 47th on four-under-par.
It was a disappointing day for Leona Maguire, who had high hopes of a maiden win after an opening 62 but followed a brace of 68s by taking 34 putts in a five-over 75 to finish tied 28th on seven-under-par.
The Co Cavan rookie still made the top 60 in the points list who contest this week’s season-ending $5 million (€4.3 million) CME Group Tour Championship in 17th place, but she finished 10 strokes behind winner Nelly Korda.
The world number one looked to have thrown the title away when she triple bogeyed the 17th to fall a shot behind playing partner Lexi Thompson.
But as Thompson bogeyed the last, the world number one and Olympic champion made birdie to shoot 69 and force a four-way playoff with Thompson (69), Lydia Ko (66) and Sei Young Kim (67) on 17-under, then birdied it again in sudden death to win her fifth title of the year.
As for Harrington, the 50-year old agonisingly missed out on a place in this week’s DP World Tour Championship after Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond drained a 45 footer for eagle on the 18th in the AVIV Dubai Championship.
The Dubliner bunkered his approach to the 18th but splashed out to 18 feet and then made the birdie putt to briefly move up to tied fifth on 19-under.
His bogey-free 67 propelled him provisionally from 56th to 53rd in the Race to Dubai with the top 54 set to play the final event following a series of high-profile withdrawals.
Hopes
But his hopes of playing in the season-ending event for the first time since 2016 were dashed minutes later when Janewattananond’s eagle relegated him to a five-way tie for eighth, four strokes behind winner Joachim B Hansen of Denmark.
As a result, Harrington fell one spot overall from 56th to 57th in the Race to Dubai.
“The putt on the last gave me great comfort because I really, really struggled all day on the greens,” a disappointed Harrington explained.
“I was very tentative. I was really struggling. But the putt on the last, because I really had to hole it, I got into it and holed it.
“I wish I could hit all putts like that. I need that sort of pressure. Do or die makes it a lot easier, but it’s disappointing.
“When I finished and I was fifth, it looked like I maybe had a chance. But it was just a step too far.”
With 11th-ranked Will Zalatoris not counting towards the Race to Dubai as an affiliate member and world number one Jon Rahm, Norway’s Viktor Hovland, and England’s Justin Rose opting not to travel to Dubai for the final event, the top 54 in the season-long points list will tee it up on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates with Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry the only Irish qualifiers.
“What’s good as I could see where I am going wrong,” added Harrington, who will round off the season in the PNC Championship on the PGA Tour Champions in Orlando from December 17th-19th.
Eye-opener
“The last couple of weeks have been an eye-opener. Even the Ryder Cup was an eye-opener. I could see in my own game what I need to do. I could see what’s lacking and I know how to fix it. Whether I do it or not is up to me.”
As Hansen closed with a bogey-free 68 to win his second European Tour title by a shot from Italian Francesco Laporta (69) and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger (65) on 23-under, Clandeboye’s Jonathan Caldwell finished 94th in the Race to Dubai after a closing 68 left him tied 55th on 11-under.
Meanwhile, Jason Kokrak claimed his third PGA Tour win and denied US Ryder Cup star Scottie Scheffler his first when he came home in a blistering 31 blows to win the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open by two strokes.
Kokrak closed with a five-under 65 to win on 10-under par from Kevin Tway (68) and Scheffler, who came home in one-over for a 69.