By John Strege
The last trophy Darren Clarke hoisted prior to Sunday was the claret jug, his Open Championship victory coming more than nine years ago. And though presumably one does not forget how to win, neither do they forget how to lose.

The thought crossed his mind when he double-bogeyed the ninth hole of the final round of the TimberTech Championship on Sunday, before he regrouped and closed out his maiden PGA Tour Champions victory with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 18th hole on the Old Course at Broken Sound in Boca Raton, Fla.

“Amazing,” the 52-year-old Northern Ireland native said of a one-stroke victory over Bernhard Langer and Jim Furyk. “It’s been a grind. It’s been hard work. These guys are really good. To actually get it done feels good.”

The negativity that often undermines players arose with that double bogey. A winner of 14 European Tour events (including a British Open and two World Golf Championship events), Clarke began wondering whether an inadvertent penalty in the second round on Saturday might ultimately lead to his downfall.

On the second hole on Saturday, Clarke marked his ball in the fairway and picked it up to clean it, thinking they were playing lift, clean and place as they had in the first round following torrential rain. It wasn’t, and he incurred a one-stroke penalty.

“Yeah, that certainly crossed my mind,” he said on Sunday, “but I seem to keep doing these stupid things. I’m in the cart and had hit that snap hook, my only real bad shot today, on No. 9, and thinking, you’re cruising again, but don’t do something stupid again.”

It was only a temporary setback. Clarke followed with consecutive birdies on 10 and 11 and played a bogey-free back nine. He finished with a four-under-par 68 and a 54-hole total of 17-under-par 199.

“My attitude was great,” he said regarding the manner in which he rebounded from the ninth hole setback. “I spoke last night with [sports psychologist] Dr. Bob Rotella, who I’ve been working with for a very long time. Doctor told me to hang in there and keep going and just accept what comes out. Sometimes we push and push too hard. Today it was just patience.”

Clarke and Langer, the defending champion and two-time winner of the event, were tied before Langer missed a par putt inside three feet at the 17th hole. Langer, playing in front of Clarke, regained a share of the lead with a two-putt birdie at 18.

But a perfect drive and a second shot to 25-feet of the hole on 18 left Clarke with a relatively simple two-putt to win, his first victory in this his 40th senior start.

The post Darren Clarke wins the TimberTech Championship, his first victory since the 2011 British Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
Darren Clarke is hungry for a win on the PGA Tour Champions. The Irishman who was a Ryder Cup regular and captured the 2011 Open Championship has competed 2½ years on the senior circuit without a victory. He’s really only contended a few times, with five top-fives in 39 starts.

Clarke did show he’s still got game by shooting a 62 earlier this year in the Sanford Invitational’s second round, but a second 70 for the week on Sunday dropped him into a tie for 12th.

If Clarke were to lose the title he has near his grasp this week in the TimberTech Championship—especially if it’s by one shot—it will be especially brutal. He’ll rue a brain cramp on the second hole on Saturday at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Fla.

With eight birdies and an eagle, Clarke fashioned a tremendous 10-under 62 on the Old Course and was tied atop the leader board with Robert Karlsson (66). The round should have been a 61. On the second hole, Clarke hit a drive into the middle of the fairway, arrived at the ball, and then marked and picked it up. Like the previous round, he thought they were playing lift, clean and place. They were not.

“Oops,” Clarke said good-naturedly while recounting the gaffe. “One-shot penalty straightaway.”

Unfazed, and in a hint of how the day might break his way, Clarke missed long over the green with his third shot, but then chipped in to save par. He wouldn’t make a bogey all day and finished spectacularly by making a near-tap-in eagle at 18.

Clarke said it wasn’t he first time he’d made such an error.

“I’ve done it a few times,” he said. “I keep doing stupid things at the moment; that’s one of the bad things about getting older. I’ve done it at Tiger’s tournament at Sherwood, I’ve done it somewhere else, played the wrong ball. I should probably be a little bit more attentive.

“You know, c’est la vie. Sixth-two; I’ll still take a 62.”

The post With a 62, Darren Clarke would be alone on top in Florida without his ‘oops’ rules gaffe appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
We see John Daly and everything seems as it always was. The outrageously colourful pants and an oversized yellow shirt that is bright enough to be a beacon on a lighthouse. The flowing long hair, though it seems a tad more grey and less dirty blond now. The impossibly tanned and thick forearms, and the cartoonishly long backswing.

Then we remember the recent awful news and understand that nothing is as it once was for Long John, even if Daly can sometimes make us forget that, as he did on Friday, knocking in eight birdies and an eagle to shoot an eight-under-par 64 to be the among the first-round leaders of the TimberTech Championship on the PGA Tour Champions.

In mid-September, Daly announced that he’d been diagnosed with bladder cancer that he said was treatable. He underwent chemotherapy that knocked him down like a heavyweight’s punch. But he’s back to doing what he loves best—playing golf when his world outside the ropes is wrought with drama.

“Staying busy doing Zoom calls and cameos and just kind of staying busy, you know, just trying to keep it off my mind,” the 54-year-old Daly said after his career-low senior tour round at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Fla. “I’ve got about another [chemotherapy treatment], I guess about another month before I’ve got to go do it again. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and got to keep living. I can’t just stop. The more busy I stay, the better I am, but I’ve just got to pace myself.”

Of course, for the hard- and fast-living Daly, pacing himself is relative. He said on Friday that he’s cut four songs for a country album that he hopes to finish by late next year. He’s trying to cut back on all of the behaviours that he’s been told contributed to his cancer, but the unhealthy habits stacked up for years.

“Trying to drink the right stuff, but it’s hard to take Diet Coke away from me,” Daly said. “I was proud of myself, I only smoked six cigarettes today. Usually I smoke about a pack and a half, so I was proud of myself because usually I smoke a lot more on the course than I do off. I’m trying to cut back, but hell, who knows. Can’t quit instantly.”

Friday’s round was a highlight in an otherwise mediocre competitive year for Daly. He has only one top-10 finish in 11 starts, though he’s showing signs of regaining his game, with six scores in the 60s among his last 10 rounds.

“I think everybody out here is probably rooting for John,” said Scott Parel, who opened with a 65. “To be battling cancer and to be going through what he’s going through, to be able to focus on playing golf, maybe that’s freed him up a little bit. He’s not worried about anything going on on the golf course; he’s got other things more important.”

Daly swallowed back his emotions when asked about feeling the support of those on the tour.

The putter is on.@PGA_JohnDaly with an incredible two-putt birdie from off the green @TimberTechChamp. ? pic.twitter.com/8vnw3sTflw

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 30, 2020

“Oh, the players, the caddies, they’re awesome,” he said. “They’ve been great.”

The senior tour’s biggest draw when he debuted in 2016, Daly hasn’t nearly accomplished what he wanted to against the older set. The two-time major winner and five-time PGA Tour champion has only one victory, in the 2017 Insperity Invitational.

On Friday, Daly looked like the player from his prime, with four birdies and an eagle to shoot 31 on the back nine—his front for the day. He made a 3 on the par-5 18th by hitting driver, 7-iron to 12 feet.

“The putter felt really, really good today and these greens are so good that if you get on a little roll, it helps,” Daly said. “You could see by the scores, a lot of low scores today.”

There is one other thing that’s different about Daly. He’s sporting a thick beard that makes him look like even more of a lumberjack than usual. He says he won’t cut it off until his cancer treatments are over.

“If it gets too bad I might have to trim it a little bit, but I’m going to have to keep it,” Daly said. “May be down to the ground before this thing gets over with, but that means I’m still living.”

The post Amid his cancer battle, John Daly shoots a career low on senior tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Nothing can slow down Ernie Els on the senior circuit. Including a flat tire.

Els has been on fire in his freshman campaign on the PGA Tour Champions, winning twice and posting nine top 10s in 11 appearances this year to lead the tour in earnings. That hot streak was almost doused, however, by a faulty wheel on Els’ way to the TimberTech Championship pro-am at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Fla., on Thursday.

Per tour rules, a player is disqualified from the tournament if he misses the pro-am—a rule that famously knocked out Jim Furyk of the 2010 Barclays—forcing Els in scramble mode.

“I started making calls right away, let’s put it that way,” Els told the Palm Beach Post. “I heard the car hit something and all of a sudden the alarms started going off.”

A DQ would have been an extra blow, as this week is a bit of a home game for Els, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens. Luckily for the 51-year-old, a tournament official came to pick him up and get him to the course before missing his tee time.

“Fortunately, I was coming down early to have breakfast beforehand, so I had extra time,” Els said.

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