Ángel Cabrera Wins 85th Senior PGA Championship

BETHESDA, Md. – To start at the winner’s circle is understandable and a natural reaction at the conclusion of any golf tournament.

So there was Angel Cabrera standing with the Alfred S. Bourne Trophy, the hardware sparkling in pulsating late-afternoon sunshine Sunday at Congressional Country Club.

He had won the 85th Senior PGA Championship with a spirited 5-under 10-hole hole stretch starting at the sixth. Shooting 2-under 69 for 8-under 280, the 55-year-old from Argentina became the fifth player since 1990 to win the first two senior majors of the year, the Regions Tradition and the Senior PGA Championship, although he’s the first to do it in consecutive weeks.

(Lee Trevino, 1992; Bernhard Langer, 2017; Alex Cejka, 2021; and Steve Stricker, 2023, have also done it since 1990.)

“I feel very emotional,” said Cabrera, acknowledging that he returned to golf just last year after spending 30 months in jail in Argentina. “Maybe you can’t see it inside but I’m emotional.”

His words were delivered by an interpreter, but the solemness needed no translation. It was real.

It just wasn’t as real as what had transpired a short while earlier when Padraig Harrington had poured his heart out.

The Irishman stood in that other circle where storytellers rarely visit after a championship – the circle for the runners-up. But with apologies to Cabrera, who won, this was a championship that was about who didn’t win and how it all unfolded in the final hours of the day will gnaw at Harrington for a long time.

He had burned it up with a front-side 32 to get to 7-under, then ran off three more birdies, at the 11th, 12th, and 14th to get to 10-under. “Seven-under (on his round) through 14,” said Harrington. “I could have been more, doing handstands.”

Oh, yeah, he was feeling it, and it didn’t matter that Cabera was still chasing three groups behind. “It was all too easy at that point,” he said.

Then, it wasn’t, and to hear Harrington tell you how it all fell apart with a double-bogey at the 424-yard, par-4 14th was utterly compelling and a stop-writing-and-just-listen moment.

“You know, I’ve had a lifelong problem with getting confident and cocky and I did it on the 15th tee box,” said Harrington, his words dripping with anguish.

“It’s always plagued me my whole life since I’ve been a kid. (I) just get overconfident and just don’t (focus). It was a simple tee shot, 5-wood, a little draw down there and I just totally didn’t get into it enough and then panicked at the last minute and hit a big hook.”

From deep rough, Harrington hit a lay-up into more rough, then his third made it to about 15 yards short of the green. He putted it up to about 12 feet, missed that, and fell to 8-under.

When Cabrera almost at the same time birdied the 13th, it was a tie ball game. At least until the Argentine added another birdie at that same 15th hole that had sent Harrington spiraling.

He drove it badly and didn’t birdie the par-5 16th, found the fairway at the par-4 17th but didn’t afford himself a birdie chance, then he sprayed it wide right at the 18th.

There would be a brilliant recovery for Harrington from that predicament, a big high, sweeping wedge shot up and over a tree onto three green. It was perhaps a 30-foot try for birdie and while it didn’t fall, Harrington approved of his putt.

But the next one? A 3-footer, it made him sick. He just didn’t see the break it took on him. So with a closing bogey he left the course at 7-under, signed his card, then spoke of past horrors that have arisen when he committed the same sin – being confident and cocky.

“I lost a tournament when I was 18 years of age, the Irish Youth, and I did the exact same thing. Two ahead with three to play and I relaxed.”

He even brought up Carnoustie, the Open Championship he won in 2007. A tool late in that match was to look at a very short putt and tell himself, “I could still lose,” and that exorcised all the confidence and cockiness.

The TV next to him was showing Cabrera playing the 18th at 9-under and hitting a nifty approach onto the green from a lie similar to Harrington’s on the hill right of the fairway. “That was a good shot,” he said and then the questions stopped out of respect.

Harrington was watching TV, knowing if Cabrera two-putted from over 30 feet to finish at 9-under it would be a two-stroke victory. “I’d just really like him to two-putt... ” he said, but then when the putt stayed 6 feet shy the Irishman added solemnly, “And he’s not, oh God.”

“Look, I’m disappointed now . . . but it will be more disappointing if he doesn’t hole that putt (for par).”

With that, Harrington couldn’t watch anymore. He thanked those in the room, not wanting to watch what he expected (and what happened). Cabrera missed and made bogey, finished at 8-under and now Harrington was off to deal with the agony of that missed 3-footer on the 18th hole and playing the last four holes in 3-over.

Sometimes, the story is the guy who didn’t win. Harrington understood. Painfully.

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Not all T4s are created equal. That sort of sums up yet another surreal week for Jason Caron in this Senior PGA Championship. Last year he was a bonafide PGA of America Golf Professional when he earned his way into this major and stunned the proceedings with a share of fourth place.

In the quintessential ride-the-wave experience, Caron turned a few spots into PGA TOUR Champions tournaments into fully-exempt status so that when he teed it up here at Congressional the 52-year-old was still a club pro, yes, but so, too, was he firmly entrenched in his tour life.

He didn’t know what to expect this week, but with his wife, two girls, and a loyal gallery following him, Caron closed with a 71 – 282 and a share of fourth. Again. Only this time, a different sense of surreal blanketed him.

“I had no clue after last year what would happen (with his PGA TOUR Champions ride). But the way things panned out I have been telling myself, ‘Listen, obviously you can hang. If you can, just see how long it can go for.’ ”

Consider the ride still going strong.

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You’ve just played six rounds of championship golf representing the Corebridge Financial Team on a demanding golf courses in 11 days – which isn’t to overlook the four or five days for practice, too – so time for a rest?

Not likely when you’re PGA of America Golf Professional Bob Sowards.

“I have lessons starting tomorrow at noon. So I get to take a few hours off in the morning and then I start right back at it,” laughed Sowards. He had just posted a solid, level-par 72 to finish at 9-over 297 to finish as low PGA of America Golf Professional.

Having missed the cut after a tough go over a long and wet Quail Hollow Club in his 12th PGA Championship last week, Sowards brought a much sharper game here to Congressional. Fact is, he played nicely Thursday and Friday (73-73) and quite well Sunday (three birdies, three bogeys), his championship spoiled by Saturday’s 79.

“I let the wind blow me away (Saturday),” he said. “I didn’t handle the wind very well (Saturday) and kind of shot myself out of it.”

It’s not the first time Sowards has earned this honor of being low PGA of America Golf Professional. In fact, back in 2021, he was in contention to win before settling for a share of fifth place.

Sowards, who works at Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club in Powell, Ohio, has also made the cut in all six of his starts in this championship.

All of it, he believes, helps inspire his students.

“One of the things that I try to get across to them is how it feels to be inside the ropes, because being nervous and playing well is the ultimate, in my opinion,” said Sowards. “It’s what you play for, is to be nervous. Then coming through and hitting good shots when you’re ready to throw up is the ultimate.”

READ MORE: Bob Sowards, PGA, Earns Low PGA of America Golf Professional Honors

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Take a bow, Congressional Country Club. At 101 years old, your clubhouse is a museum and your golf course with its great bones and vaunted history presented demanding challenges all week. It drained beautifully after being pounded with rain Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but the wind was relentless, blowing from 10 to 15 m.p.h.

As a result, scoring performances were at a premium. There were 32 sub-par scores Thursday, only 23 Friday, and just 15 in Saturday’s third round. Through the first 54 holes, only 10 sub-70 scores were recorded, with a first-round 67 by Cameron Percy the low score.

Sunday, there was a little more warmth, a little less wind, and better scoring conditions. As a result, 24 sub-par rounds were posted, 10 of them in the 60s, and Steven Alker posted the tournament’s low round, a 66.