Open Diary: Darren Clarke signed-off from Turnberry with a one-under 69 before providing some colourful answers and insight into what he gets up to when away from the fairways. He went on a roll when asked: "What's the talk in the locker-room about (Tom) Watson?"
“I wouldn’t really know because I came off the golf course yesterday (Saturday), went straight to the pub and got drunk, so I’ve got no idea what the talk was in the locker-room,” said Clarke, whose hopes unravelled with Saturday’s 78.
Reporter: “I actually saw you in that pub, you were watching Lee (Westwood) and you stayed to the end watching him.”
“Yeah, I was getting pissed watching Lee,” added Clarke.
He was then asked if he intended to hang about to see if Westwood, his close friend and ISM stablemate, would lift the Claret Jug?
“No, I’ve got seven hours in a car ahead of me to get back home.”
Reporter: “After that Darren, where do you go?”
“I’m going to lie on my arse on the beach, if you really want to know. In the Bahamas, do a bit of bone fishing. There’s a golf course there too so I’ll play with the boys over there.”
BBC tries to pull a fast one
All week the BBC has been telling us, “Let’s go over to the clubhouse locker-room where Hazel (Irvine) is with . . .”. But Auntie hasn’t exactly been straight with the viewers.
The BBC’s post-round interview area has the look of an upmarket locker-room, with rich, mahogany- like lockers and the RA logo visible on each of the locker doors.
We’ve since found out the supposed locker-room is a set in a portakabin just beyond the mixed zone behind the 18th grandstand.
Manassero still thinking straight
Sixteen-year-old Matteo Manassero became the youngest British Amateur champion this year, then became the youngest British Open competitor in the modern era and is now the youngest recipient of the silver medal after a final round 69 left the Italian with a two-over 282 aggregate.
Given all he has achieved for one so young, Manassero said he still intends to finish school before following in the footsteps of his idol, Rory McIlroy.
“No, I do not want to turn professional (now), in three years when I finish school,” said Manassero, who finds himself in a similar position to McIlroy after the latter won the silver medal as an 18-year-old at Carnoustie in 2007. “I must finish school, it is important to me.”
Food for thought for the RA
It is ironic that Tom Watson was recently consulted by the RA before they decided to reduce the age of past British Open champions from 65 to 60, given that the 59-year-old has been the sensational story all week.
“Past Open champions are exempt until the age of 60,” the RA stated.
“This was reduced from 65 years of age because of a desire to see more places available in the starting field to golfers in their prime who had a genuine chance of competing for the Open Championship. Tom Watson was among those consulted on the matter and offered his support to our objective.”
A couple of rare birds
Ross Fisher ran up a disastrous quadruple-bogey eight at the fifth to derail his chances, but there were plenty of feel good stories at the other end of the scoring scale on the final day.
Thomas Levet recorded a hole-in-one at the 206-yard 15th with a five-iron.
Earlier in the day former champion Paul Lawrie enjoyed his first albatross at the 538-yard par-five seventh.
Attendance figures: Practice days: 19,500. Thursday: 23,500. Friday: 28,000. Saturday: 27,500. Sunday: 24,500. Total: 123,000.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)