Another chance gone for Clarke
At the age of 37 Darren Clarke will still hope to have many more chances to win a major golf title.
However, although a 22nd place finish in the Masters last night does not look on the surface like one that got away, the Ulsterman knows it could have been very different.
When Clarke birdied the first hole of his final round he was only one behind Phil Mickelson – and that after taking a triple bogey eight at the 15th hole of his third round.
But one behind was as good as it got. Seven bogeys later he had not even secured a return trip to Augusta next April by finishing in the top 16.
“Just nothing happened at all,” he said afterwards. “Everything that had a chance of going in stayed out and it was just one of those days.
“I got a great start and I felt fine all day, even on the back nine when I was over par. I was trying to get back, but I couldn’t get anything to go in. I just wanted to go out and play as well as I could. I shot 77, but it wasn’t 77 golf. So be it.
“Obviously disappointing, but it would have been worse if I had played badly. And I was happy with my attitude.”
With his wife Heather battling cancer Clarke knows where golf ranks when it comes to really important things.
In previous times he might well have exploded when he put two balls in the water at the 15th early yesterday when the third round resumed after Saturday’s rain delay.
But he did not. As he said: “You couldn’t have told the difference in me if I had made four or eight – and that can only be a good thing.
“So I made a triple bogey. Big deal. Everybody’s making mistakes. These things happen out there.”
He followed it with a birdie and added: “I don’t make two after an eight unless my head’s okay.” That can only stand him in good stead in the months and years to come.
There was disappointment too for David Howell, Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald, who finished 19th, 27th and 42nd respectively.
Howell, like Clarke, was fifth at halfway, but shot a third round 76 for the second year running when well placed.
He did have a side muscle strain, though, and may not now travel to China for the Asian Open next week.
Harrington would have been only two behind if he had started yesterday by making a seven-foot birdie putt on the seventh hole of his third round. But instead he three-putted it.
The 13th and 15th were the holes that were mainly responsible for his finishing, however. He took seven at both in the morning and on his return in the final round ran up bogey sixes – in all nine more shots than winner Mickelson took.
Donald was out of it long before that, but after coming third on his debut last year he had high hopes.
