Clarke fails to cut it with the blade

On the day the magic died for Darren Clarke, the top prize of Stg£226,185 in the Smurfit European Open was captured by his friend Lee Westwood at The K Club yesterday. Leaden skies matched a strangely muted occasion, as polite applause replaced the wild cheering of the previous two rounds.

Despite a double-bogey at the treacherous 16th, Westwood shot a final round of 65 for a 17-under-par aggregate of 271 and a three-stroke victory over Clarke and Australia's Peter O'Malley, who shared second place. Clarke's misery was completed by an extremely costly three-putt par at the last for a closing 75 devoid of even one birdie.

"This was my most disappointing day ever," said the Tyroneman afterwards. "To shoot 60, have a hole in one and still not win - it's going to take an awful long time for me to get over this. I wouldn't care to tell you what I'd like to do with my clubs at this moment."

Nine birdies from Westwood told their own story of his skill in extracting the maximum return from a rich vein of form. The basis for this latest triumph had been laid at the Dutch Open the previous weekend, where a final round of 63 allowed him to come from five behind for victory. It is the second time in successive years that the Englishman has had back-to-back wins in Europe. The last time it happened was 14 months ago when he added the English Open to a victory in the Deutsche Bank Open.

Clarke will now have to come to terms with a bitter collapse from the heights of a sizzling 60 on Saturday and a hole-in-one during a hugely impressive 66 on Sunday. With a six-stroke lead over O'Malley and a seven-shot advantage over Westwood, it seemed nothing short of a disaster could deprive him of the title.

Relative to a 60, his closing 75 probably qualified as such. Yet it never quite looked that way insofar as there was no major slip, only the drip-drip of successive putting failures and three bogeys in four holes from the sixth.

On the other hand, Westwood opened the door with a double-bogey six at the 16th, where an ill-judged second finished in water. And O'Malley, in the last pairing with Clarke, also double-bogeyed it. In his case, the six was the product of a decidedly ambitious second shot from behind a tree and in rough on the left. While failing to clear the hazard, it landed in rocks on the greenside from where he had to take a penalty drop.

Given the severe criticism which a number of players levelled against the quality of the greens throughout the tournament, it seems strange that the general scoring should have been so good. It's certainly hard to reconcile poor putting surfaces with a proliferation of birdies, but that's how things worked out.

Costantino Rocca, noted for his proficiency with the blade, seemed to have no problems when carding seven birdies and no bogeys on the way to a sparkling 65. It meant a share of fourth place with Sweden's Robert Karlsson, for the Italian who was runner-up to Per-Ulrik Johansson in 1996.

"I played really well all week and just couldn't hole any putts," said Rocca afterwards. "Today, I holed them. It could have been a 60 or a 62." Such a putting touch would have meant so much to Clarke.

His target score of 68 for the final round seemed eminently attainable, in view of what had gone before. But before the round was long in progress, the signs were ominous: Clarke's body language had become increasingly negative while Westwood, ahead of him in a pairing with Colin Montgomerie, was making significant progress.

As things turned out, the crucial holes became the sixth to the 10th, after Westwood had closed the gap to five strokes by the fifth. Clarke bogeyed the sixth and dropped another at the long seventh where he was in water when trying to make the green in two. Westwood, meanwhile, birdied the seventh, eighth and ninth to leave them level at 15 under.

"As I stood over a 35-foot birdie putt on the ninth, I said to myself `if I can hole this one, I'll be tied,"' said the Englishman afterwards. So it was small wonder that Westwood should have shot out his right arm in elation when the ball found the target. Then came a birdie at the 10th where he almost knocked the pin out of the hole with an eight-iron approach.

In my view, the decisive hole was the long 13th. There, Westwood hit a beautifully-judged three-wood second shot into the neck fronting the green, from where he played an equally precise pitch and run to eight feet. He then holed the putt for a birdie four to be 17 under and leading by three.

Along came Clarke, who pitched to 20 feet. Brollies were raised against the rain as he walked towards the putt, almost like a condemned man to the gallows. A lone voice shouted "Come on Darren" as he walked off the green with a modest par. But there was no response over the ensuing holes: his spirit had been broken by lack of success with the blade.

O'Malley never seemed likely to seriously challenge for the title until Westwood's fall from grace at the 16th - "that was a mental error; I had a nine-iron of 150 yards and came off it." Then the Australian tried to do what had eluded him in the previous three rounds - hit the green in regulation.

"I had an eight iron and I was just trying to miss the tree with my follow-through," he said afterwards. "It just came out further right than I had intended." But a degree of compensation was at hand when he sank a 45-footer for a birdie at the next.

Down the 18th, however, O'Malley squandered the chance of finishing second on his own. One stroke ahead of Clarke, he three-putted for a bogey. And the Irishman's missed three-foot birdie attempt on the same green, cost him £32,914 - the difference between second place on his own and sharing with O'Malley.

For his part, Westwood negotiated the 518 yards like a champion. Down the middle with a booming drive, he put a gentle draw on a three-wood second shot of 239 yards to bring the ball to rest 30 feet to the right of the pin. He then eased a slippery putt down the slope to a foot below the hole and tapped it in for the embellishment to a fine day's work.

Westwood's total was four strokes outside the record of 267 set by Per-Ulrik Johansson two years ago. But splendid scoring was reflected in the fact that of the 72 qualifiers, only 10 failed to finish below par. Clearly, some were holing putts; pity it wasn't Clarke.