The 45th U.S. Senior Open is underway at Colorado Springs, and the leaderboard is featuring a couple of familiar names this week. Among them is Padraig Harrington, who is best known for his 2007 Open Championship win, when he became the first Irish golfer to win the tournament in 60 years. Now three years into his run on the PGA Tour Champions, Harrington is chasing his second senior major win at Broadmoor, sitting pretty at 6-under heading into the weekend. But his sharp play isn’t the only thing turning heads—he’s been grabbing headlines for something else, too.
With strong form comes high expectations—and the pressure to maintain it. Harrington alluded to that pressure after posting back-to-back rounds of 67 to tie for the lead with Stewart Cink and Mark Hensby. “When you’re at the top of the leaderboard all week, it’s always a stressful week,” he admitted. The weather wasn’t favorable either on Friday, with rain causing nearly an hour-long delay in play. But for Padraig Harrington, the conditions weren’t the only source of frustration.
After wrapping up his second round, the Hall of Famer was caught in a heated verbal exchange with longtime on-course NBC reporter Roger Maltbie. In a video that began circulating Friday evening, Harrington appears visibly irritated as he confronts Maltbie, saying, “Never on a golf course stand and look at somebody looking for a golf ball.” The tense moment quickly became a hot topic as everyone tried to piece together what sparked the confrontation.
The issue apparently arose because Harrington himself or someone else in his group lost their golf ball on a particular hole. Instead of Maltbie helping out to look for the ball, he simply stood there and watched everyone make the effort. This gesture from Maltbie simply annoyed Harrington, and it led to the heated exchange. While Harrington’s caddie, Ronan Flood, is seen in the video trying to break it off between the two, Maltbie continued to stand his ground. This fiery confrontation left onlookers stunned and set social media ablaze.
Harrington was even more vexed because Maltbie was a professional golfer himself. “You’ve played golf all your life. You understand,” Harrington pointed out to Maltbie. And it’s true. Maltbie has played on the PGA Tour for 20 years and has five wins to his name. But that didn’t matter to him, as he annoyingly responded, “I’m not a player.” Harrington continued to feel strongly about the issue and wasn’t pleased by Maltbie’s actions.
The display of frustration between Harrington and Maltbie isn’t the first time we’ve seen heated verbal exchanges. This incident adds fuel to a growing narrative — the increasingly frayed dynamic between athletes and the press.
The tension between the media and players continues
Even earlier this year, players on the PGA Tour like Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa faced constant criticism from the media. Morikawa’s runner-up finish at Bay Hill this year led him to avoid talking to the media, and he felt he didn’t “owe” anyone anything. And this remark didn’t sit well with Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley, as they expressed their disappointment on Golf Channel soon after.
Even McIlroy refused to talk to the media after the 2025 PGA Championship, because he was particularly vexed about his non-conforming driver news being leaked by the media. He missed media interactions for all four days at Quail Hollow and even the first two days at Oakmont, and finally addressed the media with “I feel like I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want to do, yeah,” on the third day at the U.S. Open.
It’s led to several critics claiming that players are being too pampered and ignorant for skipping media duties or even just their behaviour towards the media. From guarded press conferences to outright walkouts, the friction between players and journalists has grown more visible—and more personal. And Harrington’s outburst didn’t just break the usual script — it shattered the fragile truce that’s been holding both sides together.
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