Darren Clarke, the 1998 Benson and Hedges International Open winner, beat 17 other former champions in a special five hole challenge event at The De Vere Belfry.
Clarke was awarded a commemorative gold medal during a sunlit ceremony on the 18th green afterwards. Maurice Bembridge, the 1979 champion, took the silver medal and Peter Senior, winner in 1992, the bronze medal.
Eighteen former winners accepted an invitation to take part in the Champions Challenge by Benson and Hedges, who are this week sponsoring the tournament for the 33rd and final time.
Clarke, the only golfer to score two under par, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The course is such a special one for so many of us, and wonderful memories of last September’’s Ryder Cup victory here came flooding back as I played each hole.
“Benson and Hedges have been a brilliant sponsor for The European Tour and it is very sad that this is their last tournament.”
Tony Jacklin, the first Benson and Hedges winner back in 1971, at Fulford, was one of three Ryder Cup captains in the field – the others being Seve Ballesteros (1994 champion) and Sam Torrance (1984 champion).
Other Ryder Cup stars on view, for an event that drew sizeable galleries, were Peter Baker (1988), Paul Broadhurst (1993), Bernhard Langer (1991 and 1997), Sandy Lyle (1985), Colin Montgomerie (1999 winner) and José Maria Olazábal (1990 and 2000).
The international flavour of the field was completed by Argentina’’s Angel Cabrera (2002 champion), Australians Jack Newton (1972), Peter O’’Malley (1995) and Noel Ratcliffe (1987), Sweden’’s Henrik Stenson (2001), and Belgian Philippe Toussaint (1974).
Competitors started at the tenth, and then played the 11th, the 16th, the 17th and the 18th holes. A star studded Celebrity Pro-Am takes place on Wednesday and the tournament itself begins on Thursday.
