It's wet and wonderful for nerveless Finch

IRISH OPEN FINAL ROUND: RICHARD FINCH isn't one of those players who stubbornly refuses to look at leaderboards. He prefers to know what's going on, why the roars are reverberating around the course and who's making a move.

So, just after he'd bogeyed the fourth hole to fall back to seven under, he noticed that the big move of the final round of the Irish Open was being made by Gary Murphy.

"Here we go again . . ." thought Finch, aware of the remarkable run of wins on the PGA European Tour by a succession of Irish players in recent weeks.

Except, this time, Murphy's great charge wasn't to be enough. This time, Finch - a 30-year-old Englishman who only retained his tour card in the final counting event last season but has re-emerged this season as a more complete player - managed to fend off all challengers, shooting a final round 70 for 10-under-par 278 that elevated him to a roll of honour featuring legendary names like Ballesteros, Langer, Woosnam and Faldo.

In his career, all five years of it, Finch has yet to play in a major or a World Golf Championship.

Now, though, that is set to change as his win here earns him a place in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and puts him into pole position to earn a place in the British Open off a mini-order of merit that concludes at this week's BMW PGA at Wentworth.

Yesterday was about showing his nerve, however. And, despite a comical conclusion that saw him fall like a stone into the dark waters of the river Maigue, Finch could emerge from those waters with soaked clothing but head held high. After all, his approach - his third shot to the 18th green - had somewhat managed to find a way onto the putting surface.

He was home and hosed, in more ways than one.

On a day when grey clouds occasionally seeped drizzle on to the players, and the crowd of 23,048, scoring proved to be difficult.

The front nine proved particularly testing, as emphasised by the horror start experienced by Darren Clarke, who having taken a triple bogey finish to his third round on Saturday, started the final round by dropping five shots in five holes, while the overnight leader, Bradley Dredge, had a bogey and a double bogey in his first three holes to hand the initiative to others.

Murphy proved immune from such errors. Having commenced the day five strokes adrift of Dredge, and with a logjam of players ahead of him, the Kilkenny man made a whirlwind start. And a hat-trick of birdies from the second and another on the sixth brought him to eight under par, at which stage he had moved into a share of the lead with Finch, Felipe Aguilar and Robert Karlsson.

That early momentum was not to be sustained by Murphy, although - after suffering bogeys at the eighth, from a three-putt, and the 13th - he did hole a seven-footer for birdie on the 18th, to finish with a 69 for 281 that left him in a four-way tie for third.

It represented Murphy's best finish on tour since he secured his tour card in 2000, and the €118,750 cheque lifted him from 140th on the money list to 69th.

"This feels so good," remarked Murphy, who'd made only four of 11 cuts on tour this season before returning to Adare Manor, where he once held the course record, and its feel-good vibes. "I hadn't played particularly well this season, hadn't been scoring and it has been so frustrating. It's nice to get this performance, to kick-start my season."

Once Murphy got into the lead, his putting stroke got edgier.

"When you're coming down the stretch on a Sunday afternoon, I presume everyone is on edge. If they're not, they need to get another job," he said.

"I've always been a slow starter in a season, so this will kick-start my year and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks. There's a lot of positive energy on tour at the moment with the Irish players and it's nice to be feeding off it."

While Murphy finished as leading Irishman, Rory McIlroy - competing in his first Irish Open - performed admirably, finishing with a closing 70 for 282 in seventh position.

The risk-and-reward par-five seventh proved critical to McIlroy, where he attempted to foreshorten the route to the fairway by taking on the corner and finished in the hazard. He chose to play it, donned waterproofs but only moved it a matter of yards. And the error was compounded when he then put his third shot into the water. "A bit silly of me," he said.

Still, demonstrating his ability, he then covered the remaining 11 holes in four-under-par.

"I'm pretty proud of myself, the way I bounced back and kept my composure. The start of the year was a learning curve for me, but this is basically my season starting now. I feed off the crowds, get a great buzz out of it, and they were brilliant here."

Still, Finch proved to be uncatchable to everyone. After that bogey on the fourth, he moved clear of the field with birdies at the seventh, ninth, 12th and the 15th. Fortunately for him, he had a nice safety net - at least on the scoreboard - when he came to the 18th.