DUTCH OPEN: DARREN CLARKE yesterday lifted the trophy which may well bring with it an invitation from Nick Faldo to be part of his Ryder Cup team.
A week after his 40th birthday, Clarke captured his second victory of the season at the Dutch Open, and did so by a commanding, four-stroke margin.
Paul McGinley, his cup team-mate in the last three matches, finished runner-up after a storming 64, but conceded that the day belonged to Clarke.
The Ulsterman's 66 for a 16-under-par total came too late for him to force his way into an automatic cup spot, but Faldo hands out two wild cards next Sunday and Clarke and Paul Casey are now big favourites for them.
If they are picked it would mean McGinley not playing for the first time since 1999, Colin Montgomerie missing his first match since his 1991 debut and British Open runner-up Ian Poulter possibly being on the outside too, although he still has a chance to be in the top 10 on the points table in next week's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
Not that Clarke, who has been on each of the last five sides, is taking anything for granted.
After a hug and a high-five with his sons Tyrone and Conor - it was the first time they have been present for one of his wins - he reflected on a superb week's work.
"It's nice to win knowing that I had to play well and then actually doing it," said the man who was an inspiration to the last European side by winning all his three games just six weeks after his wife, Heather, died of breast cancer.
"I had two weeks to try to impress Nick. The first is out of the way and I seem to have done that.
"I don't know if I have done enough, but I'm going to Gleneagles in better shape and hopefully he will take notice."
Clarke began the last day three clear, but there was a shock in store for him because after just three holes playing partner Henrik Stenson had turned that deficit into a one-stroke advantage.
He started with a hat-trick of birdies, whereas Clarke went over the green on the long second and ran up a bogey six.
However, Clarke birdied three of the next four, and with the Swede making a mess of the seventh and ninth - bogey and double bogey - he started the back nine four clear. And, for good measure, he birdied the next three holes.
McGinley, who resigned as an assistant to Faldo to try to play himself in, took solo second when Stenson bogeyed the last.
"It was a good effort, but all credit to Darren," McGinley commented. "There are only two picks, so it's a tight situation, but I'm going to have to win (in Scotland) to give myself a chance.
"As everybody knows, it's about winning. I've no complaints - I've not played well enough, but there's one more event and I'll certainly be giving it 101 per cent."
Three automatic places are still up for grabs, and Dane Soren Hansen finished joint sixth at Kennemer to move above England's Oliver Wilson into ninth spot on the cup standings.
Along with Justin Rose in eighth spot, they will all be trying to hold off German Martin Kaymer, Poulter, Ross Fisher and Nick Dougherty in the final counting tournament.
Kaymer stays in 11th spot after finishing in 55th place on two over.
Defending champion Fisher had a chance to go above Poulter into 12th on the table when he burst into a share of fifth with four to play, but two bogeys in the last three sent him sliding back to 20th alongside Wilson.
The day also saw only the third albatross of the European Tour season: Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee holed a 190-yard six-iron for a two on the long 12th.
Ryder Cup table
EUROPEAN LIST
1 Pádraig Harrington (Ire) 2,676,219
2 Lee Westwood (Eng) 2,547,952
3 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 2,183,494
4 MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ (Spa) 2,092,170
5 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 2,018,162
6 GRAEME McDOWELL (N Ire) 1,993,608
7 JUSTIN ROSE (Eng) 1,437,061
8 SØREN HANSEN (Den) 1,421,745
9 OLIVER WILSON (Eng) 1,386,385
10 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 1,369,093
11 Ian Poulter (Eng) 1,315,024
12 Ross Fisher (Eng) 1,294,055
13 Nick Dougherty (Eng) 1,208,366
14 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 1,122,436
15 Søren Kjeldsen (Den) 1,080,039
16 Paul Casey (Eng) 1,010,232
17 Darren Clarke (N Ire) 1,009,788
18 Peter Hanson (Eng) 994,332
19 Grégory Bourdy (Fra) 912,282
20 Colin Montgomerie (Sco) 908,807
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