By John Strege
PGA Tour Champions events are only 54 holes, often resulting in dramatic finishes, and Darren Clarke provided one in the Sanford International at Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Sunday.

Clarke holed a birdie putt of more than 60 feet on the 18th green that enabled him to join Steve Flesch and K.J. Choi in a playoff that he won on the second extra hole with another birdie. The victory was the first for the Northern Irishman since he won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in January and the third of the extended senior tour season that includes 2020 tournaments.

Clarke shot a five-under par 65 in the final round that allowed him to overcome a four-stroke deficit to the leader Choi, who had a 69. They, along with Flesch, completed 54 holes in 12-under par 198.

“It’s nice to win again,” Clarke said. “I won at the end of last year in Boca and then the first tournament this year in Hawaii, so it’s been a little bit of time since then. It’s nice to get back in the winner’s circle again. In the playoff you never know what’s going to happen, anybody can make birdie and luckily it was my day today.”

Flesch was eliminated on the first playoff hole, the 18th, by making a bogey five. Clarke and Choi returned to the 18th hole, the second of the playoff, and Clarke won with a birdie, while Choi hit a tree left of the fairway with his tee shot, taking birdie out of play.

“I’ve been working so hard,” Clarke said. “I had a chance at the one that I really, really wanted in the middle of the summer there, the British Senior Open, and didn’t quite get it done. It’s nice then to come along to win again. I have two weeks off down in Abaco [the Bahamas], down-home. Sit in front of my TV, I’ll watch every shot of the Ryder Cup, I’ll really enjoy it, and I may have a beer or two to go along with it.”

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By John Strege
It wasn’t momentum that Darren Clarke was riding, though on Sunday he won his second straight PGA Tour Champions start, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Clarke, 52 and not, shall we way, in fighting trim, is one of the few senior players who uses a golf cart to ferry himself around the golf course.

Suffice it to say, he’s enjoying the ride. The affable Northern Irishman, the 36-hole co-leader, shot a final-round eight-under-par 64 to win the first senior event of 2021.

Clarke completed 54 holes in 21-under 195. Retief Goosen, who began the round two shots back, also shot a 64 and finished second. Jerry Kelly, the 36-hole co-leader, shot a 68 and finished third.

Momentum, meanwhile, can’t explain two in a row for Clarke, given that more than two months separated his second senior victory from his first, in the TimberTech Championship in November.

“I sort of broke through in Boca [TimberTech] and I sort of liked the feeling of that,” he said. “But down in Abaco [his home in the Bahamas] straight after. Went down there with my group of mates. We play all the time. I give them lots of shots and all that sort of stuff and just keeping me competitive. I worked and practiced nearly every day from the break.”

The outcome came down to virtual match play between Clark and Goosen, and Clarke prevailed by making six birdies on the back nine, including two straight, at the 16th and 17th, that delivered the margin of victory.

It is not a new season, only a new year. When the pandemic reduced the senior tour schedule to only 15 events in 2020, a decision was made to include 2021 tournaments in a wraparound season.

On that note, then, Clarke joined Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson as the only players to have won back-to-back starts in 2020-21 season.

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The eight-time European Order of Merit champion, making his first appearance in Dubai since the 25th anniversary edition in 2014, flew in via Hawaii where a last hole bogey gifted American Jerry Kelly the PGA Champions Tour’s Mitsubishi Electric Championship. 

But that was only half the excitement in Hawaii with the Scot unsure he’d make it to the Mitsubishi after a missile threat alert was issued across the island, necessitating some time in a different sort of bunker.

“It’s interesting, of all the places to go, Sarah and I, we landed on Friday into Kona and Saturday morning, someone’s going to blow us up, and I thought, well, that’s great,” Monty said in his typically droll Scottish way.

“Of all places to land, you know, you could pick anywhere, couldn’t you, really, and yet we picked the one place that was a missile threat.

Good to catch up with old friends in the media @EuropeanTour @OmegaDDC pic.twitter.com/r2vAeT3wYS

— Colin Montgomerie (@montgomeriefdn) January 23, 2018

“It was a weird sort of thing, because people were going down manholes and stuff. I mean, what the hell, that’s no use. If I was going to sort of know it’s going to end, I’d just about order a drink from the bar and sit on the beach and watch it happen, really. Because you’re going anyway, so you might as well just go out in style, other than down a bloody manhole. That’s not the way to go, is it?

“I mean, that’s bizarre, absolutely bizarre. But yeah, of all the places to go to, you’ve flown two days to bloody well get there and someone goes and blows you up. Perfect, [laughter] bloody perfect.”

Fortunately for the 31-time European Tour winner, the warning was a false alarm and he’s  made it to Dubai. It’s just not the golfing landscape the 1994 champion quite remembers even if “yeah, people seem to recognise me”.

Well that’s a relief. As that would have been rather unfortunate!!! #hawaii pic.twitter.com/y1IGySjFJ6

— Colin Montgomerie (@montgomeriefdn) January 13, 2018

“I don’t know, caddies wearing shorts, can’t recognise anybody, even [entertainer] Niall Horan. Terrible, isn’t it. Niall Horan [who is playing Wednesday’s Pro-Am with good pal Rory McIlroy], he has more Twitter followers than I have for sure.”

Done with being star-struck by pop stars populating the practice range, Monty divulged that if golf ever becomes too much of a challenge, he always has surfing. Yes, you read that right, surfing.

“Yes, well, I thought golf was very difficult, as I said on my Twitter and I felt, there’s got to be something easier than this. And somebody said that I needed a good core to allow myself to surf.

This must be easier than golf! @ChampionsTour @FSHualalai pic.twitter.com/OQb9AihdQq

— Colin Montgomerie (@montgomeriefdn) January 14, 2018

“So I thought it possibly was a bit harder than I gave it credit for. So I didn’t bother. And there was a bit of a reef out on the Hawaiian coast and I was told to not bother there because I would kill myself on that reef… if I wasn’t bombed, I would kill myself on the reef, so I haven’t done either.

“But it was a good idea until someone said I needed a strong core to do that.”

But seriously, how’s your game? You must be encouraged even with the last gasp bogey in Hawaii?

“Very much so. I’m very fortunate in my career to say that I haven’t, you know, messed up too often. I messed up the last hole, and you know, my own fault. A one-shot lead, playing the last, I should really wrap that up, but all credit to him. He made his birdie, and I drove into a bunker and made a bogey. That was that.

“So yeah, but looking on it, as a positive, it’s a very good start to the year. Two 65s to start the year with a nine-week break was good.

“I’ve been working with Kevin Craggs up near Edinburgh. He came down to Willesley a couple of times to work on my pitching and chipping, which has been poor over the last few years to be honest, and I had to improve that to save the shots, you know, to turn the 70s into 68s and that’s working already. It’s a long year and I look forward to it with a good, solid start behind me.”

Can you still compete with these young bucks?

“Yeah, it’s a good question. These courses, they are not pitch-and-putt courses, these. They are 7000 yards. They are decent courses. It will be interesting to see where I am in many ways, you know, because I’m playing okay.

“I’m hitting the ball well. I’m finding the fairways. I’m finding the greens and I’m actually holing out okay. It will be interesting to see how I fair under these conditions here. This course has got longer obviously, playing longer because it’s over-seeded, so it plays about 7,400 now, 7,500. It’s a much longer course, and of course the standard of golf, it will be interesting to see how you get on against these young guys that hit the ball well, well, honestly, 40, 50 yards past me.

“So it will be interesting to see if it is all to do with length off the tee or is it about trying to get the ball in the hole with the least number of shots. It will be interesting to see how I fare and how some other guys around my age playing here will do similar. Jimenez, Els is here, Bjorn, Clarke, these type of guys, to see how they do, as well. It’s a great field. We’ve got a great field assembled, great field.”

Arrived @ADHmontgomerie absolutely thrilled to see all 8 of my Ryder Cup bags on display #veryproud #RyderCup @EuropeanTour @RyderCupEurope pic.twitter.com/IjxDoqtoKG

— Colin Montgomerie (@montgomeriefdn) January 23, 2018

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