BOUNCE-BACK: Darren Clarke Wins First Event In Nearly A Decade

Every now and then, a golfer will win an event, and it’ll be someone whose name you haven’t heard in several years. This past week, that golfer was 52-year old Darren Clarke.

The last time you probably heard Clarke’s name was back in 2011 when he improbably took home the Claret Jug. Since that huge victory, Clarke has been rather quiet and hasn’t won any event on any professional tour since. That is until he played in the TimberTech Championship on the Senior Tour this past weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Darren Clarke (@darrenclarke60) on Nov 2, 2020 at 8:23am PST

Clarke hung on to a one-stroke lead to defeat Senior Tour superstar Bernhard Langer and Jim Furyk. That was almost ruined, though, by a freak penalty Clarke suffered during his second round. He thought that he was playing under lift, clean, and place rules after a big rainstorm the night before. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, so when Clarke lifted his ball from the fairway to clean it, he was given a one-stroke penalty.

For someone who was competing for his first professional win in a decade, Clarke was concerned that would do him in. “Yeah, that certainly crossed my mind,” he said on Sunday, “but I seem to keep doing these stupid things. I’m in the cart and had hit that snap hook, my only real bad shot today, on No. 9, and thinking, you’re cruising again, but don’t do something stupid again.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by PGA TOUR Champions (@pgatourchampions) on Nov 1, 2020 at 4:28pm PST

Luckily for Clarke, he did not do anything stupid again after that. He did have a double bogey on the ninth hole of his final round but he also added a two-putt birdie on his final hole that ultimately gave him the win. It helped that Langer missed a short par putt on the 17th hole that dropped him behind Clarke on the leaderboard, but that shouldn’t discredit how well Darren played.

Overall, it’s great to see Clarke gain some confidence back in his game with this big win, even if it is on the Senior Tour. 

Cover Image via Instagram