Around The World
Thirty-eight-year-old Tim Clark ended a victory drought which dated to the 2010 Players Championship by coming from behind to win the RBC Canadian Open, edging Jim Furyk by one at the Royal Montreal Golf Club. For Furyk, a back-to-back champion here in 2006 and 2007, the event appeared a golden opportunity to break a nearly five-year winless streak of his own, as he opened with a 67, then added a course record-tying 63 and a Saturday 65 to build a three-shot 54-hole lead. Clark, for his part, began with rounds of 67-67 before an eagle at the par-4 2nd jumpstarted a third round 64, allowing him to go to sleep Saturday night as Furyk’s closest pursuer. On a Sunday which saw players go off both tees, in threesomes, in attempts at beating incoming rain, the status quo was maintained over the first nine as both Clark and Furyk turned even par. But Clark soon found another gear coming home, reeling in birdies at the 11th, 12th, 14th and, after a short rain delay, the 15th to finally move into the lead. He maintained this margin by matching Furyk’s birdie at the par-3 17th, then clinched the title by holing a six-footer for par at the last after Furyk missed a 12-foot birdie putt to tie………………England’s David Horsey endured an up-and-down closing stretch on Sunday afternoon to ultimately claim his third career European Tour title, beating Damien McGrane on the first hole of sudden death at the M2M Russian Open. The 29-year-old Horsey held or shared the lead after each of the first three rounds at Moscow’s Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club, leading by one after an opening 65, by two after tacking on a Friday 68, and sharing the top spot with Scotland’s Peter Whiteford after posting a Saturday 70 which included two bogeys over his final six holes. Meanwhile, hoping to record his first victory since the 2008 Volvo China Open, McGrane began Sunday six back but his fortunes began turning quickly as two early birdies, combined with Horsey bogeys at the 5th and 6th brough him briefly within two of the lead. That margin returned to three by the turn, then two when McGrane birdied the 10th – and then, rather suddenly, they were tied after Horsey double-bogeyed the 470-yard par-4 12th. A Horsey bogey at the 374-yard 14th then put McGrane in front, and the Irishman promptly added a run of three straight birdies which, on most occasions, would have been enough to salt away the title. But his untimely bogey at the 448-yard 18th left the door slightly ajar, and once again there was Horsey, rising from the ashes to chip in for eagle at the par-5 17th – just enough to force a playoff which he would win (via a routine par) after McGrane’s approach found a back bunker at the 18th...............Thirty-eight-year-old Jean Hugo braved the elements to win for the 15th time on the Sunshine Tour, edging rookie Rhys West by one at the Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Arabella. In a week in which gale force winds wiped out the second round, and Friday's finale was drenched by an icy rain, Hugo carded rounds of 68-69, the latter climaxed by a crucial final birdie at the 563-yard 18th. West was unable to match that closing four but took solo second, one ahead of a foursome of imposing veterans led by Adilson da Silva and Trevor Fisher Jr.