February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By John Manley
All Darren Clarke needed in Sunday’s final round of the British Open was for David Duval to make the kind of mistake he had become noted for in failing to win one of golf’s four majors. Duval, however, finally shook that monkey off his back at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to win the claret jug.
Clarke began Sunday’s final round one stroke behind the four co-leaders, who included Duval. The American fired a three-under-par 67 to post a three-stroke victory over Niclas Fasth, 274-277. Clarke finished at 278 (70-69-69-70) and shared third place with five others.
Also deserving of accolades is Des Smyth, who recovered from an opening-round 74 to post Friday’s low round, 65. Smyth stayed in contention throughout the weekend, shooting 70 and 71 to finish tied for 13th place at 280.
Three other Irish representatives teed off. Paul McGinley was on the leaderboard throughout the first two rounds but could not keep pace on Saturday and fell out of sight on Sunday, ending in a tie for 54th place at 289 (69-72-72-76). Padraig Harrington, whom many earmarked as a dark-horse candidate, played erratically, shooting 75-66-74-71 to finish at 286, thereby sharing 37th place with four others. Amateur Michael Hoey shot 149 (73-76) and missed the cut by five strokes.
The Open began inauspiciously for Clarke on Thursday with a double-bogey five on the first hole, a par-3. He finished the round with birdies on 17 and 18, both par-4s.
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Friday found Clarke racking up birdies on each of Lytham’s three par-5s, but he bogeyed three of the seven par-4s on the back nine. He came out smoking more than just his trademark cigar on Saturday, firing birdies on four of the first seven holes. The momentum stopped there, however, as he played to bogeys on the ninth and 18th holes, while staying even on the others.
The third hole, a par-4 proved telling on Sunday. A bogey dropped Clarke to three strokes behind Duval, who earned the first of his five birdies on the day there. An eagle on six momentarily brought Clarke to within a stroke of Duval, but that one came along soon after with a birdie to stay ahead by two.
Clarke was still in with a shot at 17, having just birdied 16 to draw to within two shots of Duval, whose only miscue was a bogey on 12. But Clarke’s tee shot found a fairway bunker, from which he sent his next shot into the grandstand. He was entitled to a free drop in the adjacent rough and knocked a beauty of a shot onto the green, but the ball dribbled past the pin and into a greenside bunker. Clarke’s blast from the sand hit the pin and came to rest three feet from the cup. But he required two putts and proceeded to 18 with a double bogey and a four-shot deficit.
As for Smyth, there was little to suggest that he would card the day’s low round as he approached the sixth tee on Friday, one over par for the round at that point. He shot a birdie 4 on six, then eagled the par-5 seventh. A skein of three birds began on the ninth hole, with another falling on 14. He played to par on the other holes. At day’s end, Smyth was four shots behind Colin Montgomerie, then the leader.
Smyth played admirably over the weekend, but the birdie deluge necessary to ascend the leaderboard did not materialize.
Clarke earned $202,654.64 for a slice of third place. Smyth collected $57,310.12 for four days’ work. Harrington’s check was worth $23,317.15, while McGinley’s cut was 412,792.96.
Christy O’Connor, Jr. was eligible to compete by virtue of his victory in last year’s British Senior Open, but the Galway man is still feeling the effects of a motorcycle accident he endured during the spring, and he withdrew.