Browse Sections

• Oldham Athletic FC
• Oldham Roughyeds'
• Local football
• Local cricket

Clarke wins in Holland

24/ 8/2008

DARREN Clarke lifted the trophy which will surely bring with it an invitation from Nick Faldo to be part of his Ryder Cup team.

A week after his 40th birthday Clarke captured his second victory of the season at the KLM Open in Holland - and did it by a commanding four-stroke margin.

Paul McGinley, his cup team-mate in the last three matches, finished runner-up after a storming 64, but conceded that the day belonged to Clarke. Meanwhile, Southport's Lee Slattery finished in a tie for fourth after a fine closing 65.

The Ulsterman’s 66 for a 16-under-par total came too late for him to force his way into an automatic cup spot, but Faldo hands out two wild cards next Sunday and Clarke and Paul Casey are now big favourites for them.

If they are picked it would mean Colin Montgomerie missing his first match since his 1991 debut, McGinley not playing for the first time since 1999 and Open runner-up Ian Poulter possibly being on the outside too, although he still has a chance to be in the top 10 on the points table in next week’s Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

Three automatic places are still up for grabs and by finishing only 34th, eighth-placed Justin Rose resigned himself to the fact that he has not yet seen off the competition and must also head to Gleneagles rather than return to America.

Dane Soren Hansen finished joint sixth at Kennemer and moves above Oliver Wilson into ninth spot on the cup standings. They will all be trying to hold off German Martin Kaymer, Poulter, Ross Fisher and Nick Dougherty in the final counting tournament.

CHESHIRE player James Murphy, from Shrigley Hall, took third place in the English Mid-Amateur Championship for the Logan Trophy at Shifnal. He led by a shot overnight after a second round 64 before a closing 71 left him four adrift of winner John Longcake, from Cumbria.

STYAL'S David Horsey tied eighth in the Ypsilon Challenge at Liberec in the Czech Republic but still lost his No 1 slot on the PGA Challenge Tour order of merit to Seve Benson who won a three man play-off victory.