His iron found the middle of the green, but on the upper tier, leaving him a 30-foot putt. Over to Derksen again. He played a great chip from the rough, stone dead for a certain par.
Back to Clarke, then. One thirty-foot putt for a win, two for a tie and back down the 18th. He stood over the putt and hit it. Hard.
It was going like a train, but it was going to be close. An inch either side and he would have been left with a six-footer coming back, but the ball hit the middle of the cup and dropped. Clarke raised his arms in triumph for the first time since the Dubai Desert Classic in 2005.
"It was a great match", said Derksen afterwards. "In the beginning, I thought it might be between the two of us. The wind was up and it was going to be difficult for the others to catch us. He’s a great winner."
Of that final putt, Clarke said "I was thinking of getting it to the hole and I wasn't going to lag it up. I putted nicely this week, and wanted to give myself a chance on the last and I hit a solid putt. It was tracking six foot out and sometimes it's meant to go in. My boys Tyrone and Conner would have liked that putt more than I did."
"This one is very special," he said of the victory. "This is the toughest one of all of them and it's nice to get back up to where I feel my golf should be. It's nice to win again and it's a really, really good feeling."
"It was always going to be a difficult hurdle for me to get back into the winners' circle after Heather had passed away", he added, alluding to the sad death of his wife last year. "My mind started going forward from the 14th onwards. I lost my concentration and started thinking about Heather and the boys, and in this game unless you keep your concentration for the whole way you make mistakes. That's what I did. But on the last green I gathered myself and said hit a good putt. Luckily I did and it went in."
Tied for second were Italy's Francesco Molinari, England's Robert Dinwiddie, and Lin Wentang, who all finished on -5. Biggest movers of the day were Henrik Stenson with a four-under for 6th place, and German Martin Kaymer with the day's best score of 67. This moved him from +2 to -3, and saw him climb from 39th to 7th, adding around $50,000 to his purse in the process.
Chinese amateur Hu Mu had a disappointing final day, with a 79 that dropped him to 35th overall, but yet again he emerges with great credit from four days of effort and will certainly be a contender in the Beijing Open in two weeks time.
Best Chinese finisher was once again Liang Wenchong. He was round in a steady 73 to finish tied for 14th.
Zhang Lianwei, joint leader going into the weekend, had a disastrous front nine, having to wait till the eighth hole for his first par of the day. He improved over the back nine, and by the end of the round his card had an odd symmetry to it: eight bogeys and a par on the front nine, eight pars and a birdie on the back. He finished tied for 46th.
Of the big names in the field, Retief Goosen and Greg Norman finished well. Goosen carded a 73 for a tie in 11th, and Norman was once again under par with a 71 for a joint 14th finish.
Another big winner was young English-born Australian Adam Blyth. Delighted to be partnered with Norman, he endured a grueling front nine with five bogeys and a double bogey. He fought back hard and completed the back nine in par, and had even more to smile about when he left the 18th green.
Blyth has qualified for The Open this year, and revealed after his round that Norman has offered to partner him in a practice round at Royal Birkdale on the Tuesday before the competition.
And so China and the Asian Tour waves goodbye to the Europeans until the autumn. The next big date is the million-dollar Pine Valley Beijing Open starting on 8th May.
(David Ferguson for China.org.cn April 28, 2008)
