Sunday 23 October 2016 22:28, UK
Padraig Harrington declared his "outstanding" short game was the key to victory at the Portugal Masters after he clinched a one-shot win over Andy Sullivan in Vilamoura.
Harrington's scrambling ability was crucial to winning his first European Tour title in over eight years, and he got up and down at each of the last two holes to edge out defending champion Andy Sullivan.
The Irishman chipped in three times over the week, and he holed out from a greenside bunker at the 11th in the final round to spark a run of three birdies in four holes which took him to the top of the leaderboard.
His sublime pitch to four feet at the last set up the winning putt, securing his first win since the Honda Classic last March and his first European Tour title since the 2008 PGA Championship.
"My putting has turned the corner recently, but my chipping was outstanding this week," said the 45-year-old. "I don't think I failed to get up-and-down at all this week, and had a couple of chip-ins and a holed bunker shot.
"I was very comfortable around the greens this week and that allowed me to be aggressive to the pin. Pretty much all week I just went after every pin because I just felt great around the greens. With this type of rough and the texture of the greens, I didn't feel like there was anywhere I could be short-sided.
"My goal at the start of the week was to be very aggressive to all the pin positions, working on the principle that if I missed the green, I would get up-and-down. My short game was sharp this week and I just saw over the last couple of holes, I was able to get up-and-down when I missed greens."
Harrington was still in the chasing pack after 10 holes on Sunday, but his superb bunker escape dropped into the cup for an unlikely birdie which revived his challenge.
"There's always a turning point in the last round," he added. "I was doing nicely, but holing the bunker shot on 11 gave me the momentum that it's going to be my day. There's always something like that happens in the last round, there's a point where you can take the opportunity or you miss the opportunity, and you look back at it."
Harrington will now assess his best chances of qualifying for the Masters in April, and although he confirmed he will play in three more tournaments this year, he is unsure which Tour he will be playing on.
He said: "I moved up in the Race to Dubai, but I'm not in the Masters and I have to figure out what is my best chance of getting in there, whether it's world ranking points or whether it's order of merit. I feel like I'm playing well, so I'm just going to have to re-examine all those things.
"I have three more events. The question is going to be whether they are on the PGA tour or European Tour. But I have three more to play for sure."
