Golf Roundup: Clarke hones his game

“I struggled with my game for most of the week,” said Clarke at the tournament’s end. “But I went to the range [Saturday] night and figured out a couple of things. Today, I was swinging the club properly and drove the ball really well.”
Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane shot mirror rounds of 72 and 70 to miss the cut by two strokes. Also getting the axe were Peter Lawrie, 148 (75-73), Rory McIlroy, 150 (74-76), and Brian McElhinney, 154 (79-75).
Clarke, Lawrie and McElhinney all remain in Scotland for this week’s Open at St. Andrews Old Course. They will be joined by Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Paul McGinley.

CHAMPIONS TOUR
Des Smyth performed a “Jekyll and Hyde” routine in the Ford Senior Players Championship at TPC of Michigan in Dearborn. After starting out with 79 on
Thursday, he rallied to card 68 on Friday. But then he reverted to bad form on Saturday, when he shot 79 again. He finished with 72 on Sunday, sharing 72nd place at 298. He earned $1,825.
Mark McNulty got a piece of 11th place with others who matched his 279 (71-68-70-70), which was good for $51,500. Peter Jacobsen’s 273 was the winning number.

EUROPEAN SENIORS
Eamonn Darcy finished joint 27th in the Nigel Mansell Sunseeker International Classic at Woodbury Park in England. With 219 (73-72-74) on his cards, he was three strokes over par and 11 behind Jim Rhodes, the medalist. Eddie Polland (69-79-74) and Denis O’Sullivan (76-74-72) shared 35th place at 222, with John Curtis tied for 53rd place at 227 (80-69-78).

GREY GOOSE GATEWAY TOUR
Sean Quinlivan tied for 18th place in this circuit’s latest event at The Florida Club in Stuart, Fla. With 279 (71-70-71-67) on his card after 72 holes, he was nine strokes under par and 11 behind medalist Akio Sadakata. Quinlivan earned $1,868. P.J. Cowan bogeyed the last two holes of the second round and missed the cut by one stroke. He shot 144 (75-69).

CHALLENGE TOUR
Michael Hoey was the top finishing Irishman in the Open des Volcans at Golf des Volcans Clermont in Ferrand, France. He shot 283 (73-69-70-71) to finish the event one stroke under par and 12 adrift of Ilya Goroneskoul, the champion. Justin Kehoe overcame a triple bogey on Thursday and a double on Friday to survive the cut and go on to a share of 36th place with a score of 285 (72-72-70-71). Farther behind were Colm Moriarty, tied for 59th place at 292 (71-69-76-76), and Tim Rice, with a share of 65th position at 295 (73-71-78-73).