Here’s a look at a few players to watch this week at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, which will be played on the club’s Black Course.
The field of the PGA Tour Champions’ Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO is filled with World Golf Hall of Famers, major champions, and those who have made their names on the Champions Tour.
Tiburón had 27 holes, then an additional nine were added, with the Black Course opening in 2002, four years after the Gold. The fourth nine joined with the old South Course to become the Black Course. The North and West became the Gold Course.
Darren Clarke ended a nine-year victory drought last November. Now, he’s won two straight on the PGA Tour Champions.
Darren Clarke made his debut in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the PGA Tour Champions this year and took to the course right away, posting a 63 in Thursday’s opening round at Hualalai Golf Course in Hawaii.
He was really good in Saturday’s final round, too, torching the back nine with six birdies en route to a 64. He stuffed his approach on 16 to about two feet, setting up a birdie, and then drained a 50-foot putt on 17 for another birdie which opened up a two-shot lead over Retief Goosen.
When Goosen later parred the 18th hole, Clarke could cruise home. He tapped in for par on the last to win by two shots.
Clarke’s win last November in the TimberTech Championship in Boca Raton, Florida, was his first anywhere since the 2011 Open Championship. But visa issues meant he had to be out the U.S. three days later so was unable to travel to the Phoenix Country Club for the final event of 2020, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.
So Clarke went home for the holidays for an extended break and now, after that nine-year victory drought, has two wins in his last two starts.
Bernhard Langer finished tied for 17th and maintains his lead in the Charles Schwab Cup points race. Miguel Angel Jimenez, the event’s defending champion, finished tied for 17th. Hale Irwin, who made his 25th start at Hualalai, finished last in the 42-man field.
The PGA Tour Champions kicked off the 2021 portion of its schedule at the Four Seasons Resort along the Kona-Kohala coast. The 24-year-old Jack Nicklaus-designed course recently underwent a significant renovation but the venue kept a streak alive: Hualalai became the first course to host a Champions event 25 consecutive years.
“I haven’t had one of these in a while,” Darren Clarke said after winning the TimberTech. “I was drunk for a week the last time I won.”
BOCA RATON, Fla. – It has been nine years since Darren Clarke had a victory toast, but he showed Sunday he still knows how to win and celebrate.
Clarke birdied the 18th hole to win the TimberTech Championship by a shot over defending champion Bernhard Langer and Jim Furyk. It was Clarke’s first victory since the 2011 British Open, and Clarke celebrated with a champagne toast outside the Broken Sound clubhouse.
“I haven’t had one of these in a while,” Clarke said. “I was drunk for a week the last time I won. I imagine I’ll wake up with a headache tomorrow.”
Clarke shot a 4-under 68 on The Old Course to finish at 17-under 199, edging defending champion Bernhard Langer (67) and Jim Furyk (68) by a stroke. Miguel Angel Jimenez (66-201) was fourth.
Clarke earned $300,000 for his first victory on the PGA Tour Champions in his 40th start. The Northern Ireland native won three PGA Tour titles, highlighted by his memorable win at Royal St. George’s just before his 43th birthday.
“I’ve had a lot of opportunities the last few years, so it’s great to finally win one,” Clarke said. “I wouldn’t be working this hard if I didn’t think I could still win.”
Clarke took advantage of rare mistakes by Hall of Famer Langer, a Boca Raton resident who was trying to win his 42nd career PGA Tour Champions title. Langer was leading at 17-under after 14 holes and hadn’t made a bogey all week on a course where he had already won twice.
Langer (67) then bogeyed two of his next three holes. He hit it in the water at the difficult 15th hole after an errant drive – he had to get up-and-down from the fairway to save bogey – and missed a short par putt at the 17th.
Langer birdied the 18th to finish at 16-under and force Clarke to birdie the par-5 18th to win. Langer remains four wins behind Hale Irwin’s career mark of 45 on the PGA Tour Champions.
“I got off to a good start with a birdie at the first and kept going,” Langer said “I didn’t drive the ball well and I could feel something wasn’t right with my swing and it showed up over and over. I made a great birdie at the end, but the swing just wasn’t quite where it needed to be.”
Darren Clarke hits a drive off the 12th tee during final round of the TimberTech Championship in Boca Raton, Florida on November 1, 2020. Photo Richard Graulich/Palm Beach Post
Furyk was trying to win for the third time in five starts on the PGA Tour Champions. He spent most of the back nine within a shot or two of the lead, but made one birdie on the last seven holes, a disappointing one at the 18th.
“I didn’t make a lot of putts,” Furyk said. “I was burning a lot of edges. At 18, I had a nice look for eagle from about 20 feet and thought I hit a great putt. I didn’t even sniff the hole. I probably missed it a good cup low and we just misread the putt.”
Clarke birdied three of his first seven holes Sunday and led at 16-under until he double-bogeyed the ninth hole after his drive went into the water. Clarke responded with birdies on the next two holes to remain in contention.
Had Clarke lost, no doubt he would have rued a one-stroke penalty he received Saturday for picking up his ball on the second hole, forgetting the field was no longer using preferred lies.
This was Clarke’s last chance to win this year. Because of visa issues, he has to be out of the country by Wednesday, meaning he will miss next week’s season-ending event in Phoenix.
He’ll take with him a nice parting gift – the TimberTech Championship trophy. And more time to celebrate.
“I would love to go and try and win again next week, but unfortunately that won’t be the case,” Clarke said. “I’m going to have to sit at the beach down in Abaco Club, drink some sea breezes and watch the boys on the big screen.
“When everybody makes a birdie, I’ll go cheer and have another sea breeze or a Kalik Light. It will be a little bit of both.”
Darren Clarke and Robert Karlsson lead the TimberTech Championship through 54 holes with Jim Furyk T-3 and in contention.
BOCA RATON – Darren Clarke got off to a fast start for the second consecutive day on Saturday, and this time he didn’t let up.
Clarke, 52, who is seeking his first PGA Tour Champions victory, shot a bogey-free 10-under-par 62 Saturday for a 13-under 131 total.
He was tied for the lead of the TimberTech Championship with Robert Karlsson, 51, who followed his opening 65 with a six-birdie 66, during an intermittently wet and windy second round at The Old Course at Broken Sound.
They were one shot ahead of Jim Furyk, who had shared the first-round lead with John Daly at 64. Furyk was alone in third place after a 68 Saturday and a 132 total. Daly shot a 1-over 73 with four bogeys and three birdies to fall into a tie for 20th.
Cameron Beckman, 50, who is playing in only his fifth Champions Tour event, and Kent Jones, 53, both shot 66 Saturday and were tied for fourth along with hometown favorite and defending champion Bernhard Langer and Scott Parel, who both shot 68. Gene Sauers and Rod Pampling both shot 65 to move up 19 spots into a tie for eighth.
Sunday’s final round begins at 9:35 a.m. Clarke, Karlsson and Furyk tee off in the last threesome at 11:45 a.m.
Clarke, who won the 2011 Open Championship, had four birdies on the front nine Friday, but he had two bogeys and a birdie coming home to finish at 3-under 69, which put him in a 19-way tie for 27th in the 81-player field.
A native of Northern Ireland who now lives at The Winding Club at Abaco Bay in the Bahamas, Clarke birdied the first hole Saturday morning and added four more birdies on to finish the front 5-under 31. He then birdied the first two holes on the back to give him three consecutive birdies and five in a six-hole stretch.
A birdie at No. 13 put him at 8 under for the day. After four pars in a row, he concluded his round in style on the 507-yard par-5 18th. Clarke hit his second shot, an 8-iron from 163 yards, three feet from the hole, then rolled in the eagle putt. Approach shots like that were the key to his round.
“I holed one 30-footer on No. 9 and one 12-footer on No. 10 … about everything else was about three, four feet,” said Clarke, who is in his third season on the Champions Tour. “The greens are receptive, obviously, and if you play it well, you give yourself opportunities. Today I read the greens better than I have for quite some time. But again, it was much easier to hole putts – it goes without saying – if you hit it closer.”
Clarke was on such a good roll, not even a mental mistake could stop his momentum.
“The last few weeks with the weather conditions, we’ve been ball in hand, marking it and placing it,” said Clarke, adding that on the first tee the starter told his threesome that no placing was allowed Saturday. “First hole, fine. Second hole, down the middle of the fairway, marked it, picked it up. Oops. One-shot penalty straightaway. Anyway, hit it over the back of the green, chipped it in for par.
“A 61 would’ve been nice, but a 62 is just fine with me.”
Karlsson, a native of Sweden, has six top-10 finishes in 11 events in his first season on the PGA Tour Champions. He had four birdies on the front nine, birdied the 14th hole to pull within a shot of Clarke, and two-putted the 18th for birdie for the tie.
Playing aggressively, but smart, has been a key to his success this year, which includes a tie for second, and three straight top-10s coming into this tournament.
“I’ve had too many tournaments where I made too many mistakes early on, otherwise I probably would have done a bit better because a lot of my good tournaments have come from really great last holes, or last few holes anyway, in the last round,” said Karlsson, who had 11 European Tour wins. “When you play on the Champions Tour, it’s just very, very low scoring all the time and very bunched up. I’m trying not to get too caught up in it, play my own game and that’s going to be the plan tomorrow as well.
“I’m ecstatic with my first year on the tour. I didn’t play well at the end on the European Tour and coming out here and being up in the top of the leaderboard again, see my name on the leaderboards, being in contention, it’s great fun again to be there.”
Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie and Woody Austin are tied for first at the SAS Championship. They are 9 under going into Sunday.
Darren Clarke jumped six spots up the leaderboard on Saturday to tie Colin Montgomerie and first-round leader Woody Austin for the lead at the SAS Championship. All three now sit at 9-under par going into Sunday’s final round.
Clarke was mostly solid on Friday, but a double-bogey on the par-4 sixth marred what was otherwise a competitive five-birdie effort. The 52-year-old from Northern Ireland cleaned things up during the second round, posting five birdies on the back nine and six total. With 15 international victories to his name, Clarke is looking for his first PGA Tour Champions win.
“I was playing okay sort of all day and I kept telling myself ‘just be patient’ and stupid old thing, I kept waiting for something to happen,” Clarke said. “The greens are so pure that the subtle breaks, you’ve got to hit it really close to make — you’re not going to make a lot of bombs here really from 20, 30 feet all day, so I just took wedges in my hand, hit it a little bit closer there towards the end.
“Made the most of it, which is nice.”
Montgomerie, 57, found himself T-4 after the first round. Bolstered by strong iron play, he shot five birdies and remained bogey-free for a Saturday 67 that propelled him three spots up the leaderboard. The golfers whom Montgomerie had been tied with — Kirk Triplett and Marco Dawson — faltered during round two. Respective scores of 70 and 71 meant that Triplett fell back five places to T-9 and Dawson 11 to T-15.
“I’ve been changing my swing,” revealed Montgomerie, owner of 42 international wins and seven Champions Tour wins to date. “I’ve lost a little weight and I put a little bit on again. American food, you can’t help it.
“I’ve been coming more inside on the backswing, or it feels like that, it might not look it on the screen, but it does definitely feel. So I’ve got a better launch, I’ve got a better trajectory, just the whole thing’s better than it was.”
Austin held ground against his surging opponents, although his second-round effort wasn’t as sharp as his opening-round 66. Two bogeys against five birdies left the 56-year old with a 3-under 69.
Also in the hunt are David Toms (United States), Bernhard Langer (Germany) and Vijay Singh (Fiji), all of whom are T-4 at 8 under. Toms, 53, carded six birdies against one bogey to move ahead three spots with a 67. He is looking for his second PGA Tour Champions victory.
The big movers, though, were Langer and Singh, who both rocketed 12 spots up the leaderboard. Langer, 63, got there by shooting 66 on the day — bettering his first-round performance by four strokes. He fired seven birdies against just one bogey, with four of those birdies coming on the back nine. Langer, a two-time Masters winner and an icon in the golf world, boasts 41 Champions Tour victories and 61 international titles.
Meanwhile, the 57-year old Singh shook off an early bogey on No. 4 to card a 66. He pulled it off in dramatic fashion with two eagles on the day: one on the par-5 seventh and another on the par-4 18th. Singh, the 2008 FedExCup Champion, has 34 PGA Tour wins and 22 international titles under his belt.
Clarke’s excitement in playing at the Senior Players Championship might be superseded by the fact that Alison will join him in Akron.
When his wife Alison left Newport Beach, California, on March 8, Darren Clarke could not have imagined they would spend the next five months apart.
After he completed the final round of the PGA Tour Champions’ Hoag Classic, she flew to their home in Portrush, Northern Ireland, just before international travel was halted by the coronavirus pandemic. Clarke found himself alone at their place at The Abaco Club on Winding Bay in the Bahamas from March 14 until five weeks ago, when their eldest son Tyrone managed to join him.
The Clarkes were an ocean away on their eighth wedding anniversary on April 11.
So Clarke’s excitement to return to Firestone Country Club for the first time in nine years for this week’s Bridgestone Senior Players Championship might be superseded by the fact that Alison will join him in Akron on Saturday night.
“That will be wonderful,” Clarke said by phone from Abaco on Thursday. “She’s been back in Northern Ireland with our son Conor. With airports, borders, everything being shut, it’s been a logistical nightmare trying to get everybody together. It actually hasn’t been possible.”
The 2003 winner of the World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational and the 2011 British Open champion, Clarke will be playing his first Champions Tour event since the lockdown began. He doesn’t know what lies ahead for the rest of the season amid COVID-19, except that tour protocols will reduce him to delivery or carryout from his favorite restaurant, Ken Stewart’s Grille.
“I’ve got no idea what the real world is really like,” he said, days from emerging from his pandemic paradise.
Clarke was frustrated he was forced to communicate with his wife and sons via WhatsApp and video calls twice a day, but admitted, “At least we were seeing each other a daily basis.” Despite the separation anxiety, Clarke knows he was lucky to be quarantined at The Abaco Club.
He said Abaco Island has had only one known case of COVID-19. The club has repaired damage from Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that destroyed nearby Marsh Harbour last September; he said that town may be five years from normalcy. The Abaco Club’s Scottish-style links course regarded as the best in the Bahamas remained open, as did its beach bar Flippers, 20 yards from the first tee.
Clarke said he cooked for himself, played golf and went fly fishing for permit, which he said is his “thing” while there.
“They’re the holy grail of flying fishing,” Clarke said. “They’re very spooky. You’ve got to basically be able to throw a minimum 80-foot cast in 25 mph crosswinds and land it in a one-foot square. You can do all that perfect and they still won’t eat.
“That’s my complete obsession. They call it permit fever. I’ve been doing it now for a good few years. They are incredibly difficult and frustrating. Not only do I do that, but I also try to play golf. So I picked two of the hardest things you could possibly do.”
With Clarke were a few good friends — course superintendent Matt Dimase, food and beverage manager John Wiley, development officer Kevin O’Malley and golf director Brian Shaver.
Clarke, 51, has always done everything to excess, and that included consuming his Flippers drink of choice, a Sea Breeze (usually vodka and cranberry with a splash of grapefruit).
“They’ve got a very heavy pour down here, which leads to a very sore head in the mornings,” Clarke said. “I tend to enjoy myself wherever I go and these five months have been no exception.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been dragged towards Flippers a lot, so exercise hasn’t been at the top of the agenda. Eating and drinking however have. It’s been quite a good fun time with my friends, but I’m ready to get back to playing again and seeing the guys on tour and trying to be competitive again.”
Five months of merriment did not keep Clarke from working on his game.
“I’ve been practicing an awful lot. Hopefully the state of the game is OK,” he said. “You can practice all you want, but you never really know until you have a card in your hand, until you get into competition. I worked really hard on a lot of things I thought I needed to and we shall see what happens next week.”
Clarke captured the 2011 British Open at Royal St. George’s, at age 42 becoming the oldest winner of the event since Roberto De Vicenzo in 1967. But Clarke said he no longer basks in that glow.
“It’s wonderful to win the tournament that I wanted to win as a kid. The guys jab at me every now and again when they win a hole off me in Nassau,” he said. “It’s not something that I think about an awful lot. I achieved my dream, which not too many people actually do, so I’m very fortunate in that way. Maybe I should revisit it a little bit more often in my thoughts.”
Winless on his two years on the Champions Tour, Clarke can think of no better place for that breakthrough than Firestone, where his 12-under par 270 in 2003 was four strokes better than Jonathan Kaye.
“It would be wonderful to win at Firestone,” he said. “I’ve given myself a few chances to win, not as many as I would have liked. That’s why I’ve been working my a– off and practicing as hard as I have. I want to win. If that was to come sooner rather later, I would really enjoy it.”
With the impending arrival of Alison, the Bridgestone Senior Players will provide more than a South Course challenge for Clarke.
Miss Northern Ireland and runner-up as Miss United Kingdom in 1987, Alison (nee Campbell) founded Belfast-based ACA Models in 1990. Alison met Clarke on a blind date set up by golfer Graeme McDowell, a Portrush native.
Clarke’s wife Heather died in 2006 at age 39 after a four-year battle with breast cancer. Their sons Tyrone and Conor were 8 and 5, respectively.
“I was still living in London and Graeme suggested, ‘I’ve got a friend you might want to meet,’” Clarke said of finding Alison. “We spent a weekend in London and got along really well. It was time for me to move back to Northern Ireland again. She has her business there.
“It was one of those things that just worked out. She’s a wonderful lady.”
Darren Clarke dishes on hooking his biggest fish, his champions dinner and why he never drank out of the Claret Jug.
Darren Clarke, 51, is sheltering-in-place at his home at the Abaco Club in The Bahamas and playing golf there every day. Unfortunately, his family is divided due to travel restrictions, which left his wife and younger son, Conor, back in Northern Ireland and older son, Tyrone, who plays golf at Lynn University, in Florida.
“We’re all in different places, which is a bit of a nightmare, but we’re all healthy,” Clarke said.
Always one of the more colorful golfers, Clarke dishes on celebrating with the Claret Jug, the time he addressed the full membership at Pine Valley, and his burning desire to win again.
Golfweek: Of all the places you could live, why did you choose Abaco Club in the Bahamas?
Darren Clarke: When I first came here, I fell in love with it. The horseshoe beach and the golf course is fantastic. It’s got some of the best saltwater fly-fishing in the world. That kind of ticks all my boxes. I’ve been a global player so I’ve been around and Abaco is my happy place. I come here and get on to island time. This is as good as it gets.
Darren Clarke holds another trophy, a 38-pound permit. (Courtesy Darren Clarke).
GW: What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever hooked?
DC: I’m a permit guy through and through. That’s the holy grail for me. I got a 38-pounder a few years ago on a fly rod, just a few off the world record on the test I was doing. They are the most difficult fish on a fly, so not only do I manage to irritate myself playing golf, but I have to go after the hardest fish as well. That pretty much sums me up.
GW: How has Abaco recovered since Hurricane Dorian moved through last September?
DC: It’s been slow. Marsh Harbor is still a far cry from what it was. It was total devastation. The Bahamas relies on tourism for generating the majority of its income and now to be hit by COVID-19, it’s a double whammy. It’s really tough times for all the Bahamians here.
GW: I know that a lot of the homes at Abaco Club have names like “Sandcastle.” What’s yours called?
DC: Mine is called Sea Breeze. Partially because I do have a tendency to get my butt stuck at Flippers Beach Bar and I’ve ordered too many sea breezes. But I can stumble home quite easily.
Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland celebrates victory on the 18th green during the final round of The 140th Open Championship at Royal St. George’s on July 17, 2011 in Sandwich, England.
GW: In 1990, you had a dominant year in Irish amateur golf, but you were still thinking of waiting to turn pro until after the Walker Cup. What convinced you to do otherwise?
DC: I spoke to Chubby Chandler, my manager, at the end of August in Dublin. He came and met me and said if you turn pro you’ll be a better player in a year’s time than if you wait and I took his advice. He’d been a player and he told me that he’d made every mistake I was going to make and would steer me away from as many of those as possible. We made a handshake deal and that’s it — no contract, just a shake of the hand to this day.
GW: You had the opening tee time at the 2019 Open, at the course where you grew up playing. What were the emotions like when you went to the tee at Royal Portrush?
DC: The tee time was 6:40 in the morning. It’s more of a ceremonial thing to do it. But for it to be at Portrush and to be an Open champion, it was a huge honor for me. I walked down those steps and all of a sudden I felt, Ooh! This is a little more nerve-wracking than I thought it was going to be. I’ve played the course a thousand times and it’s usually a 2-iron or something and chase it down the left. All of a sudden I decided I needed a bigger head so I hit driver. I’ve had some amazing experiences on the first tee at Ryder Cups and the like but this was equally special.
GW: With the Open canceled this year, you’ll have to wait to go back to Royal St. George’s, site of your 2011 Open victory, until next year. What do you remember most about that victory?
DC: Probably the week-long party afterward. I had my chances before at the Open. That week I controlled my ball flight well. I had struggled the week before with my putting at the Scottish Open. I worked with Bob Rotella and he gave me a couple of little drills to do and I was able to get out of my own way and didn’t get upset by any bad bounce and at the end of the week, I was able to do what I always dreamed of doing.
GW: What’s the coolest thing you got to do with the Claret Jug?
DC: That’s tough to answer because I took it with me all over the world, but if I had to pick one I’d been to Pine Valley many times and I was up for membership and I got in and they had a new member weekend in 2012. I think there were 16 of us. A new member has to speak in front of the full membership and they nominated me as the Open champion to speak on behalf of them. So, I told them about everything I was thinking from the 14th hole on and they all seemed to enjoy it at the time.
Darren Clarke poses with a pint after winning his lone major title in 2011.
GW: What’s the first thing you drank out of it?
DC: I never drank anything out of it. Never. It was a weird sort of respect thing, I guess. I did have lots of drinks sitting beside the Claret Jug, but none from it!
GW: Which talent would you most like to have?
DC: To sing. If you end up in some of the places where I’ve ended up, you know how the Irish are, we do tend to enjoy ourselves a lot. Many of us can get up and play piano and hold a tune but, unfortunately, I can’t.
GW: Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met?
DC: I was awarded an O.B.E. so I have met the Queen when she handed them out.
GW: What is your most treasured possession?
DC: I have lots of those little Ryder Cup replicas, but probably the Claret Jug replica. It’s in a display case at Royal Portrush clubhouse so all the guests can enjoy it. If I had it at home, it would probably be in a cupboard, so much better there.
GW: What would your champions dinner have been had you won the Masters?
DC: A good-old hearty Irish stew.
GW: What one goal do you hope to accomplish this year?
DC: I want to win. I played not bad but not good enough on the Champions Tour since I turned 50. I’ve been playing during this lockdown every day. The competitor in me is still searching for perfection, but I know I don’t need to be perfect. I want to win so badly that I’m getting in my own way and stopping myself from doing it.
Ryder Cup Captain Darren Clarke (second from right) with the Ryder Cup and his vice-captains Paul Lawrie (L), Padraig Harrington and Thomas Bjorn (R).
GW: Who is the most underrated player in the game?
DC: I played with Eddie Pepperell when he was coming through the ranks. He’s one of those guys you’re just waiting for him to have even more success. You see so many talented guys. We can all play. It’s just those ones that have a little bit of a spark or they hit it a little bit differently or can handle the adversity and bounce back. You can tell more about a player in tough times than in good times. Bob Torrance used to say to me, it’s not how good your good is, it’s how good your bad is.
GW: What’s the best shot you’ve ever seen hit?
DC: Phil Mickelson at Augusta playing the 11th hole. The flag is front-left and the greens are like concrete, running 14 on the Stimpmeter. Phil pull-hooked his second way right almost onto the downslope of the 12th tee. I’m watching this and thinking there’s no way he can get it on the green and keep his ball from not going in the water (that hugs the left side of the green). He took a full swing with his lob wedge, landed it 2 inches on the green, trickle, trickle, trickle and into the hole. That’s just Phil. I almost bowed in front of him. It was out of this world. I don’t think anyone else on the planet could have hit that shot.
GW: That begs the question: what’s your best shot?
DC: My tee shot on the opening hole of the 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club (a little more than a month after his wife had died of breast cancer). I didn’t know if I was going to snap hook it, duff it, top it, miss it, block it and I managed to make a decent swing and hit it 320 yards down the middle.
