DUTCH OPEN:A week after returning to Ireland to mark his 40th birthday, Darren Clarke might have more reasons to celebrate tomorrow and next weekend.
Clarke takes a three-stroke lead over Swede Henrik Stenson into tomorrow's final round of the KLM Open in Holland, and his performance could easily earn him a Ryder Cup call-up from Nick Faldo next Sunday - perhaps at the expense of Colin Montgomerie.
But while he smiled after a joint best-of-the-day 66 lifted him to 12-under-par, Justin Rose was furious with himself after falling into the pack.
A one-over-par round of 71 left Rose down in 24th place on three under and the two players immediately below him on the Ryder Cup points table, Oliver Wilson and Soren Hansen, are five under and six under.
Clarke had moved into a share of the halfway lead with a second round of 64 and more birdies on the fourth, sixth and seventh holes today swept him clear.
The inspiration of Europe's 2006 victory - Clarke claimed three wins out of three just six weeks after his wife Heather died of breast cancer - did bogey the difficult eighth and saw the gap closed from three to one, but he responded by picking up more strokes on the 12th and 13th.
Stenson, already certain of his cup place after finishing third in The Open and fourth at the US PGA, had a 68, while England's John Bickerton came home in 29 for a 66 which put him third.
Scotland Marc Warren and New Zealander Michael Campbell were a further stroke back and the leaderboard no longer features the two men with whom Clarke shared the overnight lead.
Sweden's Alex Noren had double bogeys on the fourth and fifth, while England's Robert Rock had an even worse day. He also took six on the fifth, followed it with a quintuple-bogey nine and fell outside the top 50.
PA
