Clarke seals overdue win in Japan

Darren Clarke cruised to his first victory of the year in the Taiheiyo Masters in Japan overnight.

Clarke took a four-shot lead into the final round and carded a closing 68, his fourth sub-70 round of the week, for a comfortable win in the shadows of Mount Fuji.

The Ulsterman’s 22-under-par total of 266 left him six shots ahead of stablemate Lee Westwood and Japan’s Nozomi Kawahara.

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell also completed four rounds in the 60s with a 69 to finish in a tie for sixth.

Clarke’s lead was cut to three shots when he bogeyed the second but the Ryder Cup star responded immediately with a birdie on the next and was never under threat.

Further birdies on the fifth and sixth took him out in 34 and birdies on the 11th and 18th, both par fives, sealed victory.

Westwood finished strongly with three birdies in his last five holes but saw any chance of challenging his close friend disappear when, after three early birdies, he double-bogeyed the seventh.