DAVID FEHERTY seemed determined to be worthy of the master's approval, as he completed a final round of 71 for another satisfactory challenge at the Emirates GC yesterday. By claiming £4,875 for a share of 34th place, the Ulsterman brought his earnings to £48,886 in four European events so this season.
Much of that success has been the product of a brilliant short game which prompted much praise from no less a figure than Seve Ballesteros when they played together last Thursday and Friday. And the manner of Feherty's closing birdie yesterday would certainly have pleased the Spaniard.
After a pushed one-iron second to the long 18th, Feherty finished just above the water's edge, facing an extremely difficult shot to get to within even 10 or 12 feet of the pin. But he cut the ball up with an open-faced sandwedge and landed the ball so gently that it came to rest, almost miraculously, less than three feet from the target.
"That was something special," he agreed afterwards. "It's a shot I had to perfect in the US where you're. faced with it quite a lot." Either way, it brought him his third birdie of the homeward journey after he seemed set for a bleak exercise when reaching the turn in two over.
Des Smyth finished a stroke behind him in a share of 40th place for a reward of £3,965. Sadly for him, the 18th provided a bleak finish to a round of 70, he blocked a three-iron into the water and later missed a three-foot putt to card a closing six. "Nothing is really happening for me right now," he said afterwards. "I'm just happy to have been playing in all four rounds."
He and Paul McGinley played together, projecting their Irishness with St Patrick's Day emblems. And in common with most of the other players, they also wore black ribbons as a mark of respect to the children killed in the Dunblane massacre.
McGinley, who shared 48th place and £3,185, had a disappointing day on the greens, three-putting for bogeys at the fourth and sixth in an outward 37. Like Smyth, he began to make things happen on the homeward journey, but four birdies were sufficient only for a round of 71. "This has been a putting contest, and I wasn't sharp enough to be in the hunt," he said.
Darcy, the last of the Irish qualifiers, shot a 73 for a share of 52nd place and £2,600. He never recovered from a double-bogey five at the short fourth where he pushed a six-iron into water. But he is prepared to give the broomhandle potter another try.
