MAYNOOTH, Ireland -- Seeking to become the first home winner since John O’Leary in 1982, Darren Clarke emerged with enormous credit after an incident on the ninth hole when play resumed on Monday morning at the Irish Open.
Clarke had pushed his tee shot into heavy rough when play was suspended on Sunday, but found the ball in a much better lie following his replacement drop. That gave him the chance to reach the green in two but Clarke insisted on chipping out sideways and ended up with a bogey.
‘It’s just part and parcel of the game,’ Clarke said of his gesture. ‘Yesterday (Sunday) I had a very poor lie and I got back out this morning and either a lot of people had been looking for it, or a lot of people had flattened the grass around it, it was a much better lie than when I left it. I could have hit it onto the front of the green but if I had done I would have held my head in shame walking all the way to the green so I just decided to chip it out and play it like I would have last night.’
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Despite Loss Clarke Emerges with Integrity Intact
Published May 23, 2006 04:00 PM
