No place for Darcy on US Seniors Open

TO add insult to the injury of losing Sunday’s play-off with Doug Tewell for the Farmers Charity Classic on the US Champion’s Tour, Eamonn Darcy has not found a place in this week’s $2.5 million US Seniors Open.

Tue, 24 Jun, 2003 - 01:00

Charlie Mulqueen

Ireland’s representation in the game’s premier seniors tournament is accordingly confined to Des Smyth and Christy O’Connor Junior.

Darcy, the professional at Druids Glen, picked up $125,000 for finishing second at the Egypt Valley Golf Club and has moved up to 29th on the US Champion’s Tour order of merit. He has accumulated the handsome total of $339,979 from his six appearances so far. That still leaves him an appreciable distance behind the leader Hale Irwin ($996,605) and Des Smyth (18th with $519,409). But it should also be noted that they have both played twelve tournaments to date.

However, his achievements still don’t entitle Darcy to a place in this week’s elite field. He failed to win a full card at the Tour School last November and it seems that no matter how well he has done in his limited number of appearances, it still doesn’t warrant a place in the Open.

That situation will also apply in most of the other more lucrative events in the States which means Eamonn will be seriously target the British Seniors Open at Turnberry on July 24-27 which now counts for order of merit points on the Champion’s Tour and offers a purse of £1 million sterling.

The Yanks can’t keep him out of that competition as he qualifies through his status as a former European Ryder Cup player. Darcy’s ambition is to finish the season within the top 31 who gain full cards on the Champion’s Tour next year. In spite of the restrictions being imposed upon him, he is still on course to do just that. The best way of clinching the deal would be to win a tournament and considering his blistering form in Michigan at the weekend, he is clearly well capable of doing so.

He has only been a senior since turning 50 last August and, after twice finishing second in Europe towards the end of 2002, has concentrated almost entirely on the rich American circuit.

Considering that he himself has suffered from back problems over the years, Darcy lost out at the weekend to 53 year-old Doug Tewell, who nearly withdrew from before the tournament began because of a similar ailment.

It was Tewell’s seventh win on the US seniors circuit but he is the Tour’s 17th champion in 17 events this year.

Nevertheless, it could still have been Eamonn Darcy’s tournament. He had a great chance at the first extra hole where he played a splendid chip with a five wood from the rough behind the green to six feet but missed the par putt that would have given him the first prize of $225,000.

Christy O’Connor Junior also demonstrated that he could be finding a rich vein of form when he finished the tournament with a sparkling 65 to tie 27th on a five under par total of 211 worth $12,450. Christy has played in only four events in the States (where he captured two titles in 1999) and is 91st on the money list with $38,741.

Des Smyth took last week off to be in the best of condition for the second major of the season on the Champion’s Tour. He led going into the final round of the recent Seniors PGA before eventually settling for a share of 4th place.

The Inverness club in Toledo, Ohio, will assuredly be a very emotive spot this week for the Seniors Open. Tom Watson will again be joined by his ailing caddy, Bruce Edwards, while Hubert Green will be competing although he is shortly to undergo chemotherapy for throat cancer. Edwards received worldwide publicity for ALS, the incurable disease from which he is suffering, during Watson’s high profile performance in the recent US Open.

Now Green, who is best remembered in this country for his victory in the 1977 Irish Open at Portmarnock (the same year he captured the US Open), is in the headlines for similarly unfortunate reasons. He has a cancerous growth, attached to his left tonsil and the back of his tongue, although the good news is that it has not spread to the lymph nodes or other organs. He began the Farmers Charity event with a 66 before shooting 67 and 71 for a share of 4th. Now he hopes for a similarly good result in the Seniors Open.

“If I wasn’t playing, I’d probably be at home feeling sorry for myself,” he admitted. “But I’m not scared and I’m not playing bad golf, so I’ll go out there and make some money to pay the doctors.