After one of the most dramatic conclusions to a tournament in many seasons, England’s Kenneth Ferrie emerged victorious in the Smurfit European Open at The K Club, the 26 year old’s second European Tour International Schedule victory following his win in the 2003 Canarias Open de España.
Two years ago he triumphed in a play-off but even the theatre of that was nothing compared to what surrounded his latest win where the water-protected closing holes of the demanding Palmer Course showed exactly why they will provide the perfect stage for next September’s Ryder Cup.
The bare statistics state that Ferrie’s final round 70 for a three under par total of 285 saw him win by two shots from his north east of England friend Graeme Storm and Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, who closed with respective rounds of 73 and 69.
But the real drama surrounded the final pairing of Denmark’s Thomas Björn and Raphaël Jacquelin of France. Björn held a four shot lead over Jacquelin going into the last round and coming to the final few holes, it still looked odds on the winner would be of those two. However an ending to forget to both their rounds saw them fall spectacularly out of the picture.
Björn’s misfortune began when his brave attempt to find the green in two at the par five 16th narrowly failed and when the ball rolled into the water hazard, it led to a bogey six. However, it was nothing compared to the 17th hole where he put three balls into the water from the tee to run up a septuple bogey 11.
A closing bogey six as the heavens poured down saw him finish with an 86 and a share of 33rd place on six over par 294. At the same time across the fairway, Jacquelin was suffering almost as much over the last three holes, bogeying the 16th before trips into the water at both the 17th and 18th saw him post double bogeys at both holes for a closing 79 and a share of 19th place on three over par 291.
Aside from Montgomerie and Storm, the only other player in with a realistic chance of catching Ferrie was Scotland’s Andrew Coltart but his chance disappeared when he four putted the 17th for a quadruple bogey seven to slip back into a share of sixth.
However, all of this was of little concern to Ferrie, who kept his cool under the most trying of circumstances to pick up the biggest cheque of his career - €577,816 (£383,330) – and move to 12th on the Order of Merit.
For a moment, following his double bogey six at the 13th, he looked like he might follow the woes of his main contenders but he bounced back admirably with a birdie two at the short 14th following a four iron to four feet, and managed three pars before birdieing the 537 yard 18th after a superb three iron second found the centre of the green.
“I’m really, really pleased,” said Ferrie. “To win the Open de España as your first event on Tour was obviously an achievement but then to win again and take a step up by winning one of the more prestigious tournaments is fantastic.
“To beat the quality of guys who were here today and to see the names on the trophy who have won this tournament before, it feels pretty good.”
Storm’s bid for the title began when he holed his bunker shot at the third, but although he battled hard, he could not unearth any further birdies from the Palmer Course. Perhaps more significantly though, he only carded two bogeys – at the 11th and 14th – and managed four pars over the difficult closing stretch.
“Obviously getting the card out of the way was my main ambition but now that’s out of the way I would like to try and get to the Volvo Masters,” he said. “My caddie believes I can finish in the top 30 of the Order of Merit and he watches me play every day.
“I have been playing pretty well but the last few weeks I have been getting the worst scores out of my rounds and that has been frustrating. But other than that I have been playing great.
“To come back from where I have been in the sense that I lost my card in 2002 and I nearly finished playing because I was working in a cream cake factory to try and raise some money. I was working in Hibernia Foods which is actually an Irish company in Stockton. So to have bounced back from that to this is just magnificent.”
Perhaps the man most disappointed not to have won was Montgomerie largely because he missed a five foot putt for birdie at the last and double bogeyed the sixth. Had he not had those two occurrences, he would have triumphed.
“It is frustrating to come up a couple short but is was a reasonable effort from 66th place on Friday night,” he said. “I have won 40 odd tournaments worldwide in my career but this next one will be the most important of my life and I have come very close here. But I’ll try again next week.”
Leading Irish contender, for which he received an award from O2, was Darren Clarke, who finished tied fourth with Sweden’s Peter Hanson. But even that was tinged with a little bit of the bizarre.
Compatriot Gary Murphy looked to be heading for at least a share of the award when he finished on one over par 289, the same mark Clarke was on heading down the 18th. Murphy’s case looked even stronger when Clarke’s second shot tricked over the edge of the green seemingly bound for the water.
However, incredibly, the ball took a kindly bounce off an angled rock and popped back up onto the edge of the putting surface from where Clarke two putted for a birde four to give him a closing 73 and a level par total of 288.
It truly was, one of those days.
