Smyth savours Seniors success
The 52 year-old Drogheda man completed a remarkable weekend for Irish golf in the US with a magnificent victory in the SBC Classic in Santa Clarita, California.
Not unlike compatriot Pádraig Harrington in Florida, Smyth set the clubhouse target after shooting a four under par 68 and a five under total of 211. He played the front nine in 34, two under, then birdied the 12th, 13th and 15th before dropping his only shot at the 16th.
He then had to sit around and wait to see how his nearest challengers, Mark McNulty and D A Weibring fared. McNulty had the chance to force a tie on the final green but his birdie attempt from 20 feet slipped by the hole.
McNulty (who now lists his nationality on tour as Irish, although he is a native of Zimbabwe) shot 74 and Weibring 72.
“I really thought Mark was going to make that putt,” said Smyth whose win was worth $132,500 and a precious two-year exemption on the Champions Tour.
“I’m certainly happy I didn’t have to go into a play-off with him. This is a really big deal for me. It puts me in the Legends and the MasterCard and also gives me a big boost in the Charles Schwab Cup. I felt I had a chance to win going into the final round.
"The course was set up so that nobody was going to run away. I knew the leaders would be under a lot of pressure and I felt I could sneak up on them. After the bogey on 16, I thought I might need another birdie but as things turned out, I didn’t. I really feel like I kind of stole it.”
Smyth is in his third year in the US.
He found it a bit of a struggle in 2003 and 2004 even though he earned $537,000 and came 35th in the order of merit. That was largely due to a good vein of form between September and the end of the campaign when he made two of his four top ten finishes, the best being a share of fifth in the Kroger Classic.
In an effort to achieve a stronger card, he went back to qualifying school and came 10th, so at the end of the day it was his position in the money list that enabled him to compete in a limited number of tournaments this year.
Now that’s all behind Des and his faithful caddy and close friend Ray Latchford. There’s healthy money to be picked up in the MasterCard and Legends events, which are confined to tournament winners, and there are also points and dollars available in the Schwab Cup for those finishing in the top ten at the end of the season.
Very understandably, Smyth is reluctant to discuss the Ryder Cup vice-captaincy until Ian Woosnam makes the official announcement during the Smurfit European Open at the end of May.
However, he was considered a banker before this weekend and now that he has demonstrated how well he can fare against the leading seniors on the Champions Tour, the higher his esteem and respect will have grown among all concerned with European golf.
Smyth’s day of joy got even better when he was told of Harrington’s win at the Honda.
“We’re all very happy about Padraig’s win today, too,” he said. “He’s our next big hope to become a Major champion.”
Things didn’t go quite so well for Graeme McDowell at the Honda. He finished way down the field and accordingly dropped two places in the world rankings from 50th to 52nd.
He hopes to make amends this week in the Bay Hill Classic where he and Darren Clarke provide the direct Irish interest. McDowell needs to be in the top 50 at the end of the month to gain an invitation to the Masters starting at Augusta on April 7.
A disappointing weekend in the Qatar Masters at the weekend means that Paul McGinley has dropped back to 79th in the rankings and most unlikely to force his way into the Masters field.
He competes in China this week along with Ryder Cup team-mates Colin Montgomerie and Paul Casey. The other Irish in the field for the €1 million TCL Classic are Philip Walton and Stephen Browne.
Elsewhere, David Higgins shot a disappointing final round of 73 to drop back to a share of tenth in the Kenya Open having gone into Sunday only a stroke off the lead after a magnificent 66 on the third day.
Nevertheless, he has improved to fifth in the Challenge Tour order of merit with 30,139 pts, marginally ahead of Belfast’s Michael Hoey, sixth with 29,944.
The top 15 on the money list at the end of the year automatically qualify for next season’s European Tour.
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