PGA Champions Tour rookie Zach Johnson birdied his first three holes and shot a 7-under-par 65 on Sunday to capture the inaugural Portugal Invitational at The Els Club Vilamoura in Algarve, Portugal.
Johnson, who finished at 19-under 197, won for the fourth time in 2026 and edged second-round leader Stewart Cink by two shots.
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington shot a 2-under 70 to finish in third place at 15-under. Tim O’Neal (-13) placed fourth and Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez and Sweden’s Mikael Lundberg tied for fifth at -12.
Cink made a critical bogey on the par-4 second hole and fell back to 12-under. He trailed Johnson by three strokes after three holes but got back to 14-under with back-to-back birdies on holes four and five.
Harrington assumed a brief lead with a birdie on the first hole and knotted Johnson at 15-under after another birdie at No. 5. But he gave that back with a bogey on the par-3 sixth hole before Johnson went on a crucial run.
Johnson responded with birdies at Nos. 7, 9 and 11 and sealed the victory with a birdie on the closing hole.
“I’ve played nice. I mean, that goes without saying,” he said. “And I’ve earned it. It has not been easy. At the same time, it just — you know, when you have successes, you really reflect pretty easily. You think about — it’s easy for me; I think about the people, I think about the individuals that support me on and off the golf course. I think about — my family, obviously, is paramount, giving me the ability, freedom to go do what I love to do.”
Johnson surged out to an 18-hole lead by shooting an 8-under par 64 on Friday, but he backed up into fourth place with an erratic round of 68 on Saturday. He erased that deficit after Sunday’s quick start.
He putted in from just off the green on the par-five 11th to increase his lead to four strokes.
“I really should have had ample birdie putts there (on holes 11 and 12), and I really did not, but I managed to make one of them,” Johnson said. “I just knew Stewart was going to make a birdie, a couple birdies even, 15 through 18. He’s a champion. That’s what Stewart does. Yeah, I kept the pedal down.”
Cink, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings, was denied his fifth victory on the tour this season. He was disappointed but enjoyed the weekend at Ernie Els’ well-planned-out event.
“I thought it was a very nice inaugural event here in Portugal,” Cink said. “The crowd was very supportive. Quite a few people out there, more than we thought, maybe, when we got here, so that was awesome. I’m really proud of the staff here. The tournament office really did a great job of putting this together, and it just ran really well. I think everybody enjoyed it. From that standpoint, home run.”
Els, the South African tournament host, finished at 8-under par, tied with six others for 17th place.
“Like I said before, all credit to Zach,” Cink said. “He’s been playing great. He’s just got a lot of momentum, and it’s going to be fun. I think today, it came down to Harrington and me and Zach, really. That was probably — if you look in a crystal ball, you’ll probably see a lot of that coming.”
–Field Level Media
