Alex Cejka Defeats Padraig Harrington to Win Senior Open

Alex Cejka defeated Padraig Harrington in a play-off to win The Senior Open in brutal conditions at Royal Porthcawl on a day when not a single player managed to break par.

Wind and driving rain took their toll - Colin Montgomerie shot a final round of 88, by far the worst score of his professional career. Players frittered shots away all day but at the end of it all, Cejka and Harrington finished tied on 289, five over par. Until this week, the last Senior Open round in which no player had gone under par was at Royal Aberdeen in 2005.

But the German got the job done at the second extra hole, making a two-putt birdie at the par-five 18th as Harrington could only manage a par after duffing his third shot from the back of the green.

Cejka emulates four-time champion Bernhard Langer as just the second German to win the Senior Open as he adds the trophy to his wins at the Regions Tradition and KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in 2021.

Overnight leader Cejka began the final round with a double bogey on the first and dropped another shot on the fourth, but battled back to hold a two-shot lead with two holes to play.

A bogey on the 17th halved the 52-year-old’s advantage and Harrington birdied the last to force extra holes.

“Wow, what a week. What a day,” said Cejka. “It’s incredible. I still can’t believe that I’m here. Seeing all those great names on the trophy, coming in here with all the pictures and everything, all the guys who won it before me, now holding it myself, it's surreal. Beating Padraig in a play-off, such a great player, but I’m glad I did it and I’m super happy.”

Harrington was bidding to become just the fifth player after Bob Charles, Gary Player, Tom Watson and Darren Clarke to win both The Open and Senior Open.

It is the highest winning score at Europe’s only Senior Major Championship since Bob Charles finished on seven over at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1993.

Vijay Singh finished in third place at seven under, a shot clear of Michael Jonzon.

Harrington's play-off defeat - his second in a senior major this year - means he has finished second in each of his Senior Open appearances.

"I hit a tentative putt on the 72nd hole. You have a chance to win the tournament and you have got to hit a great putt," Harrington said. "At the end of the day, I was trying to not hit a bad putt. I should have been trying to hit a great putt. Some of that could be tiredness too. All week, I chipped poorly, I just haven't been myself."