Westwood spoils the home party

Lee Westwood confessed to a certain wicked satisfaction at silencing the home crowd on his way to victory in the Smurfit European Open at the K Club yesterday. It heightened his determination to deprive his friend, Darren Clarke, of the most lucrative winning cheque on this side of the Atlantic, outside the British Open.

Top prize of Stg£226,185 will assure the 26-year-old Englishman of earnings in excess of £3 million this year. And though a reward of £117,871 will help Clarke towards a return in the region of £1.75 million, the extent of this crushing disappointment will, by his own estimation, take quite a while to heal.

Given the Irishman's six-stroke lead entering the final round, there were echoes of Greg Norman's defeat by Nick Faldo in the 1996 US Masters, as Clarke came to grief with a final round of 75. It means that an Irishman has still not won a European Tour event at home since John O'Leary's Irish Open triumph of 1982.

It was Westwood's 16th tournament victory and all have been achieved in the space of three years, almost to the day. And, coming only eight days after his triumph in the Dutch Open, it confirmed his status as sixth in the world rankings.

"Darren's a good friend of mine but there wasn't a lot I could say to him," Westwood said. "I've had my own disappointments here, like in the Irish Open at Druids Glen two years ago when I led Monty by three strokes after 54 holes and he finished with a 62.

"With a six-stroke lead," Westwood continued, "people seemed to think that Darren had things more or less wrapped up. But they don't seem to realise that when someone comes at you, it's very hard to re-group and focus on the things you were doing when you shot 60 and 66.

"Remembering what happened to me in the Irish Open, I turned to Monty (his playing partner) on the putting green before we set off today and I said `If you could do it to me, it can be done.' This is my biggest comeback."

Westwood entered the final round in third position, seven strokes behind Clarke and a stroke behind Australian Peter O'Malley, who eventually shared second place with the Irishman.

Clarke was acutely aware of the weight of expectation from enthusiastic galleries, especially after his exploits of the previous two days. "I would love to have won for all the people who cheered me on this weekend," he said. "They've been waiting a long time since 1982, but maybe I'll finish the job the next time."

Cumulative attendance figures for the four days were a record since the tournament was launched in 1995. Even with rain forecast for yesterday, the figure of 23,185 was up on 1998, but not as high as in 1997 when Per-Ulrik Johansson retained the title.

But the failure of Clarke to maintain the sparkle of previous rounds made for a rather muted occasion. Still, Westwood was unconcerned. "I thought the crowds were fantastic," he said. "It always fires me up when I set about trying to quieten partisan home galleries.

"I'm feeling very confident about my game right now. I'm hitting quality shots when it matters - for example, my three-wood into the last, which wasn't a piece of cake. But I started it exactly where I wanted to and drew it into the heart of the green.

"That's not an easy shot under the pressure of winning. It was one of the best shots I hit all day, and on that sort of form, I expect to do well in the USPGA Championship at Medinah next week."

Before that, he is taking a week off. Then, en route to Chicago, he and Clarke have another, less stressful assignment. They will be at Brookline next Sunday for a practice round in preparation for next month's Ryder Cup.

Meanwhile, after carding 20 birdies and an eagle over his three previous rounds, Clarke drew a total blank yesterday when it came to birdie-efforts with the blade. And the ultimate indignity was to miss from three feet at the last, at a cost to him of £32,914 - almost £11,000 per foot. It was that sort of day.