COLUMBUS, Ohio ― In a different life, Padraig Harrington had knives out for fellow golf professional Darren Clarke. And vice versa. Harrington was the outspoken up-and-comer on the PGA Tour who was bent on making his mark on tour. Clarke was the veteran who wasn’t ready to give up the throne.
One week ago on the PGA Tour Champions, at the June 26-28 Dick’s Open, Harrington and Clarke were paired together. Uh-oh.
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“Last week, me and Darren were paired up,” Harrington said June 30 at the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club.
Harrington is from Dublin, Ireland. Clarke hails from Northern Ireland. Enough said.
Wait for it … .
“And we had a great day out there,” he continued.
Huh?
“When we were young, we were rivals. There was tension between us,” Harrington continued. “He was a big star when I got on tour. I was the young guy coming up, but that doesn’t exist here.”
“Here” being the Champions Tour, known colloquially as the senior tour for players ages 50 and older.
Talk to senior players and most agree that the Champions Tour, which counts the U.S. Senior Open as one of its events, is a much friendlier place than the PGA Tour, from which it was birthed in 1980.
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“There’s no competition between players, ” Harrington said. “You’re not necessarily starting off a career. It’s a different vibe. You’ll find guys working incredibly hard, because most of the guys out here have a short window [to win]. They get three or four years, so the middle-to-lower-ranked guys practice really hard.
Stewart Cink gives Padraig a fist bump on the 14th green during the third round of the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club in Columbus on July 4, 2026.
“But off the course we definitely enjoy it more. People are friendlier and comfortable with each other. We’ve experienced the same path and have commonality. We remember the same things and can moan about the same things. ‘Which injury do you have? I have this one.’ And we remember the great days; things were always better 25 years ago.”
Ryan Armour, an Ohio State graduate who became eligible for the Champions Tour after turning 50 in February, noticed the difference between the flat belly and old guy tours almost immediately.
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“Well, 98 percent of us don’t have a posse following us,” Armour said. “We don’t have our swing coach, our mental coach, our trainer, our dietician – you know, where you need seven credentialed people every week. I think that allows for more camaraderie. We just don’t have as many people with us, so you hang with the guys more than hanging with your team.”
Michael Block reacts after putting on 18 during the first round of the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club in Columbus on July 2, 2026.
Another Champions Tour rookie, Michael Block, experienced the same one-for-all, all-for-one mentality when making his senior debut last week.
“The current PGA Tour players are built differently right now, where it’s way more cutthroat. Every person is their own entity/business,” Block said, adding that the seniors “have already done what they needed to do and are out here to have a good time.”
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But Block cautioned not to confuse a good time with a carefree time.
Darren Clarke tees off on nine during the first round of the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club in Columbus on July 2, 2026.
“You can tell they still take it very serious, and they’re still unbelievable golfers, but there just isn’t that stress of the team atmosphere,” he said. “Each guy doesn’t have 12 guys following him around. They’ve got family members, and most guys have their kid on the bag, like I do, so it’s way more of a family-friendly atmosphere. Just a whole bunch of good buddies. I’ve only been on this tour for a week and a half, and I already feel like I’m part of it, which is really cool.”
Stewart Cink, 53, and leading Harrington by one stroke at Scioto entering the July 5 final round, recalls what it was like on the PGA Tour, where 20-somethings lived golf 24/7. With their entire careers ahead of them, the younger pros focused on themselves, obsessed with their swings, their ball speed and their nutrition. It’s not like Champions Tour players are old dogs laying by the fireplace, but they have been there, done that.
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“The fact that we’ve already had our long careers, we’re all over 50, it just doesn’t feel like my whole life’s ahead of me, and if I don’t succeed at golf this year then what am I going to do? It’s just not like that,” Cink said. “So that aspect of it just sort of puts a dull edge on that sword.”
Stewart Cink tees off on the fourth hole during the third round of the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club in Columbus on July 4, 2026.
Instead of discussing putting grips and ball flight trajectories, the seniors talk about life away from the golf course.
“We’ve logged all these miles with each other,” Cink said. “We know each other. All our kids know each other. We just share different kinds of things than we used to share when we were 25 with each other.”
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As for on the course, Cink said the seniors know how to compete inside the ropes but also show compassion outside of them.
Miguel Angel Jimenez shakes hands with Charlie Wi on 18 during the third round of the U.S. Senior Open at Scioto Country Club in Columbus on July 4, 2026.
“We’re trying to beat each other’s brains in, but we also care about each other,” he said. “This year, it seems like there’s been a lot of guys getting diagnosed with stuff, more than usual. The whole tour rallies around him. You should see the text messages flying around, all the prayers and thumb’s up. … I’m not saying that doesn’t happen on the PGA Tour, but with the wider age range and more players it just naturally divides the group up into little cliques. You’ve got the young dudes over here from the West Coast and you’ve got the European guys. Out here it’s just a little more we’re one big bunch.”
Sports columnist Rob Oller can be reached at [email protected] and on X.com at @rollerCD.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: U.S. Senior Open golfers buddy up better than PGA Tour players
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