Golf:Darren Clarke was left to ponder what might have been after his bid for a first European Tour title since 2008 ended in disappointment. While Clarke can take some consolation after qualifying for next week's British Open, this capitulation on the on the banks of Loch Lomond will be a bitter pill to swallow.
After shooting three rounds in the 60s, Clarke came into today’s final round of the Scottish Open trailing overnight leader Eduardo Molinari by one. But the anticipated duel between one of the Tour’s elder statesmen and an emerging talent failed to materialise.
Instead, Clarke was always fighting an uphill battle from the moment he tried to play his ball out of the mud and water by the third green but needed three attempts at it and ran up a double-bogey seven.
It set the tone for the day and Clarke would card a round of 76, dropping to nine under for the tournament. That was still good enough for second and the Tyrone man will at least take the final qualifying place on offer for St Andrew’s last week.
Molinari hardly set the world alight himself, limping home with a three-over 74, but will not be unduly concerned after claiming his maiden tour win. With brother Francesco looking on all the way — he finished joint fourth — the 29-year-old from Turin finished on a 12-under-par total of 272 to claim the €600,000 first prize by three.
With Francesco having won the 2006 Italian Open, Edoardo’s victory makes them the third brothers to lift Tour titles — and this just eight months after they combined to win the World Cup in China.
Seve and Manuel Ballesteros did it and so did their fellow Spaniards Antonio and German Garrido.
Molinari was five clear after five holes, bogeyed the next two but then regained that advantage when Clarke dropped a shot on the short 11th and he made a 15-foot birdie putt three holes later.
Five ahead with four to play looked a done deal, but a terrible drive down the 415-yard 15th led to a double-bogey six. The gap then came down to two when Clarke made a five-foot birdie putt on the short 17th, but he was the one to bogey the last.
By then, though, he knew he had edged the British Open place from France’s Raphael Jacquelin, who came through for third with a joint best-of-the-day 68.
Clarke said: “My second to the third was five feet from being good, but I ended up making seven and was on the back foot. I told myself to just keep going and just wait for something to turn around, but I couldn’t get close enough. I didn’t play well enough.
“The Open is a consolation prize, but if somebody had said at the start of the week that I would finish second I think I would have taken it. Hopefully I can reproduce more of my first three rounds than the last one.”
Graeme McDowell missed the chance to move into the world’s top 10 for the first time. A fourth-place finish would have taken the US Open champion above England’s Paul Casey, but after starting the last day in 14th spot a four-over 75 dropped him to joint 21st.
Former British Open champions John Daly and Tom Lehman did not finish as well as they had hoped either.
Daly, who this coming week returns to the scene of his 1995 victory at St Andrews, was going well at four under with seven to play, but he triple-bogeyed the 12th and 13th and with a 77 was tied for 26th. Lehman, now 51, fell back from two under to three over and 34th spot with a 76.
Collated scores(Irl & Gbr unless stated, Irishin bold par 71):
272Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 66 69 63 74
275 Darren Clarke65 67 67 76
276Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 68 69 68
277Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 69 68 72, Stephen Gallacher 67 73 69 68, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 67 69 69 72
278 Shane Lowry68 73 66 71
279Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 70 69 69 71, Ross Fisher 71 73 65 70, Johan Edfors (Swe) 67 76 68 68
281Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 70 70 70
282Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 69 71 70, Graeme Storm 66 72 69 75, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 69 68 73, Bradley Dredge 67 69 73 73
283Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 68 73 72, Damien McGrane66 72 73 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 71 69 70
284Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 73 67 70 74, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 70 69 72 73
285Gary Boyd 74 70 68 73, Graeme McDowell71 71 68 75, David Horsey 68 72 71 74, Rhys Davies 69 74 68 74, Peter Lawrie 70 74 69 72
286Craig Lee 70 72 70 74, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 74 68 74, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 70 70 74, Heath Slocum (USA) 69 71 72 74, John Daly (USA) 67 73 69 77, David Drysdale 71 72 69 74, Martin Laird 71 71 70 74, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 71 68 71 76
287Sam Hutsby 69 72 70 76, Tom Lehman (USA) 71 72 68 76, Danny Willett 70 72 73 72, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 68 74 69 76
288Richie Ramsay 69 74 68 77, David Howell 71 73 68 76, David Dixon 71 71 72 74
289Anders Hansen (Den) 69 71 73 76, Soren Hansen (Den) 73 70 70 76, Richard Green (Aus) 69 72 70 78, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 72 74 73
290Anthony Wall 68 76 71 75, Gareth Maybin71 73 74 72, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 73 72 74, Mark Brown (Nzl) 70 74 67 79
291Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 70 70 79, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 75 74 74, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 72 69 80
292Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 68 74 71 79, David Lynn 71 71 73 77
293Christian Nilsson (Swe) 70 69 75 79
294James Morrison 72 72 71 79
295Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 67 77 72 79, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 72 74 77, John Parry 68 72 75 80, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 67 74 73 81
296James Kamte (Rsa) 71 71 71 83
297Jamie Elson 72 70 78 77, Joost Luiten (Ned) 71 73 74 79, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 70 74 73 80, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 74 70 74 79
298Richard McEvoy 71 73 73 81, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 73 74 80
300Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 75 80 76