After 11 holes of his opening round, Darren Clarke sat on five-over-par and near the foot of the leaderboard, 43 holes later, he rolled in a birdie putt on the 18th that lifted him into the podium places at the PGA Tour Champions’ Sanford International in South Dakota.
The Dungannon native may be left wondering what might have been had he gotten off to a better start on Friday, as his eight-under final tally ended up being five shots behind that of Retief Goosen who carded a final-round, three-under 67 to overtake fellow South African Ernie Els who’d held solo leader honours going into the final round.
‘The Big Easy’ was uncharacteristically out of sorts on the final day, bogeying each of his opening three holes to concede the lead and he’d close out with a three-over 73 that left him sharing third with Clarke and with Bo Van Pelt taking solo second, two behind Goosen.
“It’s great,” Goosen said of his fondness for the tournament in Sioux Falls. “I’ve come here every year since I turned 50 and it’s been a wonderful event. We’ve been well-looked after and the sponsors and the crowd have been amazing. The food’s good here. I mean, I’ve been eating in a steakhouse every night and I must say, I’m going to do that again tonight. The steaks is probably what got me going this week.”
For Clarke, this was his fourth top-three finish in 18 starts on the tour this season, and he moves into the top 10 in the Schwab Cup rankings, with Miguel Angel Jimenez continuing to lead the way and expanding his advantage over Stewart Cink who was absent as the Spaniard collected another top five.
FULL SCORING
