The weather gods were at their most mischievous but, ultimately, nothing could deprive Massimo Scarpa of a maiden tour win. First, fog, which delayed the start of play for nearly two hours, and, later, the more serious threat of lightning conspired to disrupt his victory march - however, the only kind of lightning that actually struck was an Italian winning this event for the second year running.
While Scarpa, a former semi-professional footballer followed in the footsteps of compatriot Costantino Rocca as winner of the buzzgolf.com North West of Ireland Open, Gary Murphy's experiences were a little less satisfying.
Having started the day just a shot in arrears, the 27-year-old Kilkenny man - desperately seeking to retain his tour card - slipped to a finishing 73 for nine-under-par 279, all of four strokes behind the winner. What rubbed salt into the wound, though, was that he'd actually gone into the outright lead when chipping in for birdie at his fourth hole yesterday.
"I just putted terribly," said a disappointed Murphy. In fact, he had 32 putts in his final round which effectively cost him any chance of landing a first tour title and also deprived him of the top-three finish he deserved in his ongoing attempt to win sufficient prizemoney to keep his card for next year.
"The breakdown of the money outside a top-three finish is so bad that I knew I had to shot a 68, especially in the conditions, to achieve that aim. I hadn't been dropping any silly shots in the first three rounds, but today I did . . . and that cost me," said Murphy, who actually had four birdies and five bogeys in an inconsistent round.
Murphy may have felt that things would go his way when he pitched in for birdie at the short fourth hole, but he immediately gave the shot back by bogeying the next. He didn't look at a scoreboard until he reached the 15th but, by then, he had fallen even further behind. And, typical of the day that was in it, when he did manage to sink a 15 footer for birdie at the 15th, he followed up by three-putting the next for bogey. Murphy's tied-seventh finish for £5,125 only moved him up eight places in the moneylist, from 136th to 128th.
Meanwhile, Des Smyth, the only other Irishman to make the cut, also failed to ignite.
Smyth reeled off 17 straight pars until he reached his final hole where his tee shot hit a tree and he finished with a bogey six for a 73 for two-under-par 286. "I've played the last seven weeks and I feel totally golfed out," he said. "There is just no spark there. I came here with the ambition of securing my card for next season and I've failed to do that, but I still intend to take the next two weeks off."
Scarpa had no such worries. Although he was a four-time winner on the Challenge Tour (all his successes coming in 1998), yesterday's win was his first full tour success and ensures him a full year's exemption for next season. "Proud, very proud, to add my name to Costantino's on the trophy," remarked Scrapa after securing a one-shot winning margin over Sweden's Mikael Lundberg.
In effect, Scrapa set himself up for victory with a 20-footer for eagle on the 13th hole - having covered the previous 12 holes in a nondescript level par - and, then, he rolled in a six-footer for birdie at the 13th. "Lucky," was the Italian's one-word description of the eagle putt. But he was probably due some luck given that he missed almost a month's tournament play earlier in the season when he injured his wrist attempting a recovery shot from under a tree in Brazil in March.
