Manchip shows his nerve

Neil Manchip ignored the prepared script, the one that demanded a shoot-out between Darren Clarke and Des Smyth to determine the destiny of the Smurfit Irish PGA Championship. The 26-year-old, Edinburgh-born golfer led going into yesterday's final round, but that burden should have been a millstone when the European Tour professionals came calling.

Manchip did not cast a backward glance. Instead, he manufactured a superb round, defying the pressure-laden circumstances and in the process fired his third four-under-par 67 of the tournament to finish 13 under the card and three shots clear of Clarke (67).

Manchip's pedigree this season - he won the Irish Club Professionals Championship and the Irish Assistants Championship - suggested that he wouldn't buckle.

It was a magnificent effort over a benign Island course, rendered almost defenceless by the unseasonal, clement weather, and it earned him a first prize of £16,600, which was later increased by £400 for finishing as the leading assistant professional.

And the ancillary benefits, quite apart from the title, were sizeable. He guaranteed a position as leader of the Order of Merit in the Irish PGA region, an honour which earns him an invitation into next season's Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth, the Irish Open, the European Open and the European tour event in Galway Bay. He also became the first non-Irish winner of the Irish PGA Championship.

After seven years as an assistant professional at Royal Co Down, Manchip moved to Royal Dublin only four months ago, taking up a position as a teaching assistant.

Three clear of Clarke and one ahead of Smyth beginning his round, he bogeyed the second to lie only one clear of his two adversaries, as Clarke had fired the first salvo with a birdie on the opening hole.

Surely the nerves were a factor? "No, I wasn't nervous," Manchip said. "I made a nice par at the first and that settled me. I was swinging the club well, hitting the ball nicely. "I felt that if I could play well then I could win it. If someone else went out and shot low then there is nothing that I could have done about it." His response to the second hole setback was emphatic. He birdied the fourth, hitting a three-wood to just short of the green and a chipping to eight feet. On the sixth, he floated a sand wedge to 15 feet and drained the putt for a second birdie.

It was around the turn that Manchip illustrated his ability, both mental and physical. Clarke had eagled the 10th in the match directly ahead to move to nine under par, but the young Scot produced an imperious birdie blitz of his own on nine, 10 and 11; his longest putt was a 15-foot effort on the 11th. Now 13 under, he managed seven pars, ignoring the cheers as Clarke crept closer with birdies on 12 and 13.

Manchip's playing partner, Smyth, who could not match the scoring of the two main protagonists, generously observed about the young Scot: "He played like an old pro. He was very much in control of his game and his swing."

The scoring in general was excellent: Paul McCartney managed eight birdies and a bogey in a seven-under-par 64 for a share of third place alongside Des Smyth. Foxrock professional David walker matched McGinley's feat, and the longest of his eight birdie putts was 15 feet in a round of high-quality striking.Philip Walton's miserable season continued when he triple-bogeyed the 17th to finish in a tie for seventh place. Leopardstown's Michael Allan managed a hole-in-one at the 13th on his way to a superb 65.

But yesterday was about Manchip. The disappointment of three unsuccessful attempts for a European Tour card vanished as he contemplated his victory. "It's fantastic to beat a field of this quality. If I can beat these guys then I can live with the best. I'd love to get a tour card."