Unusually for Des Smyth, he was utterly insensitive to the feelings of the humble club player after holing in one on his way to a closing 70 in the Volvo PGA Championship yesterday. "I've lost count: that's probably close to 20," he said of the ace at Wentworth's 179-yard 14th, where a five iron pitched once before popping into the hole.

While most golfers would celebrate a hole-in-one as the high-point of a modest career, Smyth saw his effort essentially as an important step towards badly-needed Order of Merit money. "The round was slipping away from me at that stage," he said.

In the event, a five-under-par total of 283 earned him £10,746 for a share of 29th place. More importantly, it lifted him from 96th to 88th in the Order of Merit and left him within £23,000 of the projected figure for retaining his card.

Meanwhile, Smyth could be forgiven for a rather jaundiced view of holes-in-one in tournament golf. As it happened, he has been rewarded for only one of them. That came on the 17th at El Prat, Barcelona, where he won a Volvo car for an ace on his way to victory in the 1983 Sanyo Open. "It doubled my money for the tournament," he recalled.

He received a magnum of champagne for yesterday's effort in a round which was otherwise fairly uneventful. "Obviously I'm happy to have improved my position over the last two rounds, for a change," he said. "But I played well enough to do significantly better."

Still, at 46, his overall performance was reflective of his affection for this fine, parkland stretch, where he lost a play-off for the PGA Championship to Rodger Davis in 1986.

Darren Clarke, whose chance of victory was effectively blown away in a 77 in Sunday's winds, recovered significantly for a final round of 69 and a total of 280 and £18,758. But he admitted afterwards: "The third round still hurts. I was in with a chance of winning the tournament and I let it get away."

The basis of yesterday's score was laid from the fourth to the 12th holes which he covered in four under par. But there were also two missed birdie putts from eight feet at the 10th and 11th which could have lifted him appreciably up the finishing order.

"It's not in my nature, but I've got to be patient," he added. "I've got to recognise that I'm making good progress after three missed cuts in my first five tournaments this year." He travels across London for the English Open at Hanbury Manor later this week.

Padraig Harrington studied the figures closely, after a final round of 73 for an aggregate of 289. And he was forced to concede that he had missed out on the chance of an exemption into the British Open. It hinged on his making the top five in the Order of Merit of those not already exempt for Carnoustie.

"I'm disgusted," he said afterwards, in the knowledge that his chance had evaporated at the short 10th where he ran up a double-bogey five. It resulted from an attempted seven-iron chip and run which came back to him from the up-slope to the green. His only assignment between now and Druids Glen is next week's German Open. He left here with a cheque for £4,420 after sharing 56th place.

Having had five successive missed cuts, it was a minor triumph for Philip Walton to qualify for the last two rounds here. And he insisted that "the cloud is lifting," despite a closing 75 which left him at the tail of the field with a cheque for £1,950.