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| December 13, 2005 | Tuesday | Ziqa’ad 10, 1426 |
Golf: England’s Donald captures crown
THOUSAND OAKS (California), Dec 12: England’s Luke Donald fired an eight-under 64 in a bogey-free final round on Sunday to win the Target World Challenge golf tournament, beating Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke by two strokes.
Donald finished on 16-under par 272 and took home a 1.3 million-dollar top prize here at the 5.5 million-dollar charity event, a 16-man showdown of US PGA players.
Clarke, who began the round with a two-stroke lead, made bogeys at 16 and 18 to hand Donald the victory.
Clarke fired a final-round 72 to stand on 274 with Irishman Padraig Harrington and New Zealand’s Michael Campbell sharing third on 276, each firing a final-round 73.
Donald opened with a birdie and followed with his first of three sets of back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth holes.
He began the back nine with back-to-back birdies and added birdies on 13, 14 and 16 for a run of five in seven holes.
Donald, whose opening-round 72 here included six bogeys and six birdies, finished with a pair of pars to post a clubhouse lead equal to Clarke, who had three holes remaining.
The Ulsterman found the left rough at the 16th hole, chipped short and failed to escape the tall grass and missed a 10-foot par putt to fall out of the lead for the first time all day.
Clarke was six feet short on an 18-foot birdie putt at the par-3 17th but dropped the tense par putt to leave himself hope of forcing a playoff as he approached the 18th hole, one that had not surrendered a final-round birdie.
Clarke found the fairway and reached the green in regulation, but left himself a monster 40-foot birdie attempt to match Donald. The put came up 15 feet short, Clarke took a bogey and Donald had the victory.
After opening with two birdies, Clarke answered a bogey at the fourth with a birdie at five, then made 10 pars in a row before the bogey at 16.
Leading scores:
272 - Luke Donald 72-68-68-64
274 - Darren Clarke 65-73-64-72
276 - Padraig Harrington 68-70-65-73, Michael Campbell 63-72-68-73
277 - Kenny Perry 69-70-66-72
279 - David Toms 73-70-70-66, Tim Clark 71-70-69-69
280 - Thomas Bjorn 70-71-70-69
282 - Fred Couples 71-68-70-73, Jim Furyk 73-68-73-68
283 - Chris DiMarco 72-68-70-73, David Howell 72-68-73-70
284 - Fred Funk 72-73-69-70
286 - Tiger Woods 72-72-69-73, Colin Montgomerie 76-70-69-71
290 - Davis Love 76-67-73-74.—AFP
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