Harrington claims third PGA Tour Champions victory of the year in St Louis

Padraig Harrington's excellent PGA Tour Champions season continued with victory at the Ascension Charity Classic in St Louis.

The 51-year-old shot his highest round of the week on Sunday, a 68, but was still able to pick up the victory by one stroke.

Harrington's previous 12 starts had brought two wins, four second-place finishes and another two top-10s – and now he has another trophy to add to the collection.

Harrington had carried a one-shot lead into the third and final round, and after a par start he found back-to-back birdies to move to 13-under.

A disappointing double bogey followed at the par-three fourth, but he eventually got one of those back with a fine approach leading to a birdie at the difficult fifth.

The Dubliner made his move around the turn with birdies at the eighth, ninth and 11th – after nudging an eagle putt to the hole - moving him to 15-under and had him three strokes clear of Steve Stricker.

There was a wobble as Harrington bogeyed 13, but he followed it with back-to-back birdies - his seventh and eighth of the day - to surge three clear once more.

There were still some nervy moments to come as he bogeyed two of the last three holes, but it didn't matter as he ended up one clear of Y. E. Yang to claim the first prize of nearly €300,000.

Darren Clarke endured a difficult final round to fall down the leaderboard into a tie for 24th. He hit five bogeys and three birdies to shoot 73, his highest round of the week, as he ended up on five under par.