It was supposed to be another victory lap for a legend. Padraig Harrington, 52, captured his second U.S. Senior Open title in 2025 at The Broadmoor after a final-round birdie on 18. But his win was overshadowed by an explosive post-round argument that gripped golf media and unsettled even the most seasoned analysts.
On Friday night, near the scoring tent, Harrington confronted former pro and longtime NBC on-course reporter Roger Maltbie with a level of fury rarely seen outside match play. The video, now viral, shows Harrington heatedly accusing Maltbie of “standing and looking” while he searched for a lost ball in the woods. Maltbie calmly replied, “So I should have disobeyed my producer?” —a line that has since become a rallying cry for both sides of the debate.
Harrington later issued an apology, noting that he was “frustrated in the moment” and that Maltbie “didn’t deserve that tone.” He admitted to letting the pressure of championship golf boil over. However, while the apology may have closed the chapter for Harrington, it has not quelled the discussion around his outburst, especially among golf analysts and podcast hosts.
On The Shotgun Start podcast from Fried Egg Golf, hosts Andy Johnson, Brendan Porath, and PJ Clark dissected the drama. Their take was clear: Harrington crossed a line, and the apology, while welcome, doesn’t erase the overreaction. “This is ridiculous that Harrington was so mad,” Johnson said bluntly, later adding context from amateur golf: that mutual expectations around ball searches aren’t always symmetrical.
Porath aimed at both the logistics and the emotions involved: “Color me skeptical. I think he’s using his boss here as a reason to just maybe stand around and have a smoke. I’m just guessing.” The podcast raised a valid issue: how far does etiquette go when media professionals, not players or caddies, are involved? Johnson acknowledged the gray area, recalling personal rounds where searching for someone else’s ball just wasn’t practical. Porath noted that from Harrington’s traditionalist viewpoint, this kind of behavior was “poor etiquette,” even if others wouldn’t see it that way.
#WATCH — Padraig Harrington & Roger Maltbie got into a spirited exchange following round 2 of the U.S. Senior Open. Padraig wanted the on course reporter to help look for his ball after losing it off the tee, but didn’t.
Should Roger have helped?pic.twitter.com/TpSDe02Cfa
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) June 28, 2025
Beyond the question of obligation, the podcast emphasized how combustible the scene had become. “Maltbie’s a hothead. If you get going at Maltbie… I thought he was going to go at him. I thought they were going to have to be, like, physically separated,” said Porath. Observers, including Fried Egg’s PJ Clark, described the pair as “circling each other like two bulls in the ring.”
“Yeah, I think Harrington—Harrington’s pissed off. He lost his ball, hit a bad shot… It’s kind of ridiculous that he went that hard at him,” Porath summarized. Despite Maltbie’s professionalism and adherence to his role as a broadcaster—where, by all accounts, he was following NBC’s production instructions—Harrington’s emotional explosion has lingered in public conversation far more than his final-round 67. That fiery moment raised eyebrows across the golf world, prompting Maltbie himself to step forward and share his side of the story.
‘Not my job’: Maltbie defends himself after Harrington dust-up
After Harrington lost a ball in the trees during Round 2, he turned to Maltbie—who was standing nearby—and expected him to help in the search. Maltbie, however, stayed put. “I can’t do it from inside the thick of the trees,” he told Golf.com the next day. “So, I stayed outside, and then [Harrington] walked near me, and he said, ‘You could help search for the ball,’ and I just didn’t respond.”
With a strict three-minute search window and “slim” odds of recovery, Harrington was forced to re-tee—and made bogey. Tensions boiled over on the next hole when Harrington’s caddie reportedly snapped at Maltbie’s spotter, telling him to “piss off.” Maltbie tried to clear the air after the round, but Harrington was unmoved. “He said, ‘It’s poor etiquette,’” Maltbie explained. “But I have a boss… I’m not a player.” He nearly added, “Your name’s not on any of my checks.”
In the end, Harrington got the last word, at least on the leaderboard, clinching the 2025 U.S. Senior Open title with a composed final round. Whether the post-round chill between him and Maltbie thaws remains to be seen, but one thing’s certain: in golf, the etiquette debates can run almost as deep as the rough.
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