By John Manley
Many a top professional golfer can go an entire year without a tournament victory, despite playing well enough to contend in the sport’s marquee events. Darren Clarke was just such an example, having finished in ties for 2nd in last year’s British Open and 8th at last month’s Masters, while failing to win a tournament for 18 months since being awarded the trophy in the 1996 German Masters.
After Sunday, someone else will have to suffice as the poster boy for wonderful but winless.
The Portrush resident scored a solid victory in the Benson & Hedges International Open at the Oxfordshire in Thame, England, on Sunday. Clarke finished play with a 5-under-par 67, providing him a 3-stroke cushion over runner-up Santiago Luna. Clarke’s cumulative score for four rounds was 15-under 273, while Luna came in at 276.
Clarke didn’t really begin humming until Saturday’s third round, which he began tied for 8th place, 4 shots behind co-leaders Massimo Florioli and Barry Lane. Clarke was even over the first six holes on Saturday, but he was off to the races with an eagle-3 on the par-5 seventh. He then closed out the front nine with two birdies. He bogeyed number 10, but got the stroke back with a birdie on 11. He birdied the 14th hole, and was even over the remainder of the back nine. His score of 67 placed him in a three-way tie with Florioli and Colin Montgomerie heading into Sunday.
Paired with Montgomerie, Clarke came out shooting for the pin. He started the day with a birdie on the first hole, but suffered a bogey on the par-4 third hole when his approach shot missed the green. That blemish only served to stoke Clarke’s fires, as he hatched birds on four of the remaining six holes on the front nine. Montgomerie’s putter, meanwhile, viewed Sunday as a day of rest, and he was soon playing in Clarke’s shadow. Florioli, meanwhile, alternated birdies with bogeys, allowing Clarke to open a 4-shot lead heading onto the 11th tee.
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Clarke assumed a more conservative posture on the back nine, content to notch pars on all but the 16th hole. He sealed the victory at that station, when his approach shot, via wedge, landed a mere foot from the cup. He tapped in for a birdie-3. Florioli’s 71 left him four shots behind Clarke, while Montgomerie shot 72 to finish five back.
The victory, Clarke’s third as a pro, should add a high octane boost to his tank as three majors loom on the horizon, beginning with the U.S. Open next month. The victory netted him the British equivalent of $206,250.
Money earners also included Paul McGinley, tied for 24th at 283 (69-73-73-68), Des Smyth, tied for 53rd at 288 (69-74-73-72), P_draig Harrington, 60th at 289 (70-72-74-73), and Eamonn Darcy, 61st at 290 (74-70-70-76). Failing to make the cut with a score of 144 or better after the second round were Christy O’Connor, Jr., 146, Ronan Rafferty, 147, and Raymond Burns, 149. Philip Walton called it a tournament after an opening round 72.
McDermott wins AIB Open
You can take the phrase, “the luck of the Irish,” as either a sweet rendering, ala George M. Cohan, or as a bitter concoction, served up with a dollop of irony by the likes of John Lennon. Cast Joe McDermott in the Cohan version. Now based in Florida, McDermott returned to his native land to win the Allied Irish Bank Irish Seniors Open at the Woodbrook Golf Club in Bray, Co. Wicklow on Sunday. The victory extended an improbable run of excellent luck that McDermott has enjoyed, beginning with the qualifying tournament last fall. On that occasion, he stared down the par-5 18th hole, needing an eagle-3 to get his tour card for this year. He did so by swatting a five-wood on his third shot directly into the hole.
The drama was a little less spectacular at Woodbrook, but was more intense and drawn out, as McDermott finished on even terms with Australians Terry Gale and Noel Ratcliffe at the completion of 54 holes, the standard distance in senior events. McDermott didn’t appear an especially strong contender as the dew covered the course on Sunday morning. He was tied for 10th place, 5 shots behind Ratcliffe, who enjoyed a 1-stroke advantage over Antonio Garrido and Brian Waites. Certainly, playing the front nine in even-par 36 wasn’t going to close the gap. In fact, it wasn’t until reaching “lucky number 13” that McDermott began to roll.
He used a 3-wood to fly the ball from tee to cup on the 201-yard, par-3 hole to whittle off a couple shots. It was the 14th hole-in-one of McDermott’s career. McDermott then posted four birdies over the remaining five holes to tie Gale and Ratcliffe. He blazed the back nine in 30 to finish with a 6-under 66 for the afternoon, and 208 for 54 holes.
Then it became a case of deja vu all over again. And over again. The deadlocked trio shuffled back to the tee of the par-4 18th hole for a sudden death playoff, which eliminated Ratcliffe.
McDermott and Gale then replayed the exact same hole four more times, matching strokes until McDermott carded a birdie the fifth time around, while Gale missed a 9-foot putt that would have sent them back to the tee once again.
It was the first tournament victory of such magnitude for McDermott, 57 years old, who is a native of Co. Clare and is still affiliated with the Kilrush Golf Club there. He moved to the Chicago area in the early 1960s, where he won several regional events on the amateur level. He turned pro in 1968. He now resides in Port St. Lucie, Fla. with his wife, Susan.
The top 20 finishers also included Irishmen Eddie Polland, who tied for 15th at 216 (71-74-71), and Liam Higgins, who tied for 19th at 217 (74-72-71). The most prominent name in the tournament belonged to England’s Tony Jacklin, the former U.S. Open champion. Jacklin finished the first round atop the leaderboard, tied with two others at 68. Subsequent rounds of 73 and 75 backed him up to 15th place, where he tied with Polland and two others.
GTE Byron Nelson Classic
Richard Coughlan played well enough in the first two rounds of the GTE Byron Nelson Classic at the TPC at Las Colinas in Irving, Tex. to make the cut. But the PGA Tour rookie from Birr, Co. Offaly, couldn’t sustain that level of play on Saturday and Sunday. After opening with rounds of 70 and 68, Coughlan slipped to 74 and 73 on the par-70 course. He finished tied for 74th at 5-over 285. He earned $4,750.
Keith Nolan began the Nelson with an auspicious 2-under 68, but a 2-over 72 on Friday left the first-year man from Bray on the wrong side of the cut line by one shot.
P.J. Cowan and John Kernohan both strung together four worthwhile rounds in the Nike Dominion Open at the Dominion Club in Glen Allen, Va. The two were among four players tied for 15th with scores of 9-under-par 279. Cowan, whose father is from Templemore, Co. Tipperary and mother is from Bandon, Co. Cork, opened with a 69, then fired three consecutive rounds of 70. Kernohan, whose father hails from Belfast, while his mother is a Tyrone woman, began the tourney with a 70, followed with two 69s, and closed with a 71. They closed 5 shots behind Bob Burns, the winner at 274. Cowan and Kernohan earned $3,032 apiece.
McHenry for Canadian Tour
John McHenry, plagues by injuries the last few years, lost his European Tour card last year, so he set out for new pastures in 1998. He recently qualified for the Canadian Tour with a 9th place finish at that circuit’s Q-School, held at The Dunes at Kamloops and Rivershore Golf Links in Kamloops, B.C. McHenry opened with a 74, then stormed back into the fray with a 67. Rounds of 71 and 68 brought his 72-hole total to 280, which was 10 shots behind Warren Schutte, the medalist.
The top 30 scores from 265 entrants qualified. The Canadian Tour begins on May 28 with the Payless Open in Victoria, B.C.