Too little too late for Clarke

TOO little, too late. That was the message yesterday from Darren Clarke who this time converted an immaculate long game into a three under par round of 68 and a two under par total of 282.

A very respectable effort by most standards, it still left him eight behind Todd Hamilton and Ernie Els. He tied for 11th and picked up a cheque for stg£69,100.

Over the four days, Clarke proved he has the golf game to take on and beat the game's best but he made one or two unforgiveable errors - like the five iron to the 18th on Thursday evening that sent the ball crashing out of bounds - and was much too inconsistent in Saturday's 73 which effectively left him with no realistic hope of challenging for the title. The momentum had long since passed but Clarke plugged away and was rewarded with a splendid final round.