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Golf Roundup Clarke preps for U.S. Open at ‘Wetchester’

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By John Manley

Darren Clarke had some options on how to spend the weekend before the U.S. Open, which begins at the Olympic Country Club in San Francisco on Thursday. The Portrush resident could have stayed in Europe and contested the Compaq European Grand Prix in England. Another option was to hunker down in Frisco, taking a week off from the tournament grind and acclimate himself to the Bay Area. Clarke went for Plan C instead, which was to play in last weekend’s American PGA Tour event, the Buick Classic at the Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y.

In the tournament’s inaugural year, 1967, it was dubbed the “Wetchester Classic,” due to torrential rains that delayed completion of the final round until the Wednesday following the Sunday on which play was scheduled to end. this year’s edition threatened to pay homage to that tourney of yore, as thunderstorms delayed play such that the second round couldn’t be completed until Sunday morning. So, at first blush, it might have seemed a lost weekend for Clarke, seeing as how the sun was shining in San Francisco.

But Clarke wanted to hone his game through tournament action and staying in Europe would have proven less beneficial than his time spent in New York. The Compaq Grand Prix was cancelled on Sunday in the midst of the second round, due to weather even more severe than that which plagued the Buick Classic. It is believed to be the first time a European Tour event was declared no contest.

Meanwhile, Clarke slogged his way to a 54-hole score of 1-under 212, which tied him for 24th place with seven others, including Vijay Singh (a two-time winner of the classic), Jose Maria Olazabal and Paul Azinger. That 212 was 11 shots off the 201 recorded by J.P. Hayes and Jim Furyk. Hayes birdied the first playoff hole, Westchester’s par-5 18th, to enjoy the first PGA Tour victory of his career. Clarke earned $13,928 in this tournament, which was abbreviated by officials in deference to the weather and players’ wishes to depart for the West Coast.

Richard Coughlan and Keith Nolan were both casualties of factors other than the weather. Coughlan shot a 1-over 72 in Thursday’s first round, which placed him among the top 40 in a tournament that was producing plenty of scores on the high side. But he withdrew before second-round play began, the second time he has done so in as many weeks (he dropped out of the Kemper Open after the first round the previous week). A PGA Tour spokesman said than an unspecified illness was to blame for Coughlan’s withdrawal. As for Nolan, he never made it to the first tee. New York cuisine touched off a case of food poisoning, which spelled doom for any ideas of his walking 18 holes.

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