Michael Campbell produced one of the shots of his career in a three-wayplay-off to set up the winning birdie and be crowned the 2003 Nissan IrishOpen champion at Portmarnock this evening.
The New Zealander found himself up against last week's British Open jointrunner-up Thomas Bjorn and Sweden's Peter Hedblom in the sudden-deathshoot-out after the trio tied with an 11 under par 277 aggregate after72-holes. Ireland is obviously endearing for the Kiwi who bridged the gapsince his last win, which came in the European Open at the K-Club last year.
The conclusion of today's event had to play second fiddle to the elements asthe play-off was delayed by 30 minutes until an electrical storm passed overthe north Dublin links. But the finale was worth waiting for as Campbellproduced electrical form of his own. He almost holed out his eight-ironapproach on the 18th, the first play-off hole, from 145 yards out.
"Under the circumstances, it was probably one of the best shots of mycareer," enthused Campbell in the press conference afterwards. "I was verycontrolled with my emotions out there, which was pleasing from my point ofview, considering I haven't been featuring so well playing in Americarecently."
While Hedblom and Bjorn both found the green in two, neither were able toconvert their putts which left Campbell with the easiest of tap-ins fromless than one foot to be crowned champion and receive the €300,000winner's cheque.
The irony of Campbell's sixth European win comes with news that he didn't evenintend playing this year's Irish Open. "It was only after I changed myschedule at the British Open last week, and I managed to get my entry in toplay here at the very last minute. I changed my mind after discussing itwith my coach and my wife, while at the same time set myself new goalsbecause for a time there I had lost my focus," added Campbell who intendsplaying more events on the European Tour.
Campbell and Bjorn made up the final pairing and much of the afternoon wasplayed out almost as a matchplay situation before they both signed for 71's.
It was only towards the latter stages that Hedblom emerged as a contenderafter the Swede strung together a trio of birdies from the 14th and drained a25-foot putt for par on the final green. His 68, which was also the lowround of the day, illustrated the testing final day conditions.
While it was Campbell's first play-off on the European Tour, Hedblom lostearlier in the year to England's Kenneth Ferrie in the Spanish Open. Atussle Ireland's Peter Lawrie was also involved in. As for Bjorn, he willhave to settle for another runner-up spot as the Dane tried to erase thememory of last week's disappointment at Royal St George's.
Closer to home, perhaps a highly successful yet enduring month finally tookits toll on Gary Murphy today as the 30-year-old played himself intocontention at Portmarnock, before losing his composure, and with it, anychance of victory midway through his round.
The Kilkenny golfer eventually signed for a level par 72 to finish on fourunder but at one stage had got to within two shots of the lead when on sevenunder. "I got off to a flying start, just what I needed," explained Murphywho birdied the third before adding two more at the sixth and seventh. Alsoincluded in the run was a fine par at the eighth, arguably the mostdifficult hole on the course today.
However, poor decisions and a loss of focus meant Murphy would bogey the10th, 11th and 13th to evaporate any hopes he had of winning. "At thatstage I was pushing to try and win the bloody thing," was the dejected response afterwards. "Somehow I lost my composure out there and after the third bogey at the 13th my chance of winning was gone." Even a birdie at the 17th was dampened by a closing bogey and Murphy will now travel to play theScandinavian Masters next week rather than take a break, which he had hopedto do.
"If I had finished better here I would have taken next week off," saidMurphy who still collected €28,740 for his tied 11th finish. In all ithas been a successful month for Murphy who hit form a fortnight ago tofinish fourth in the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and also featured well inthe Open a week later.
There was greater disappointment for Peter Lawrie who was spearheading theIrish challenge over the first three days. Starting the day just threeshots off the pace, the Dubliner hit the self-destruct button, especiallyon the back nine to slip well down the field.
The 29-year-old reached the turn in two over 38 but the real damage came byway of a double-bogey, bogey, bogey sequence from the 12th. Instead of ahigh finish, Lawrie pencilled-in a 77 to finish on two under.
"It was a hard day at the office," he said trying to hide hisdisappointment. "However, I came into the event struggling and to be incontention for so long was a whole new experience for me in front of thehome crowds. I just didn't get any friendly breaks out there and struggledto hole my putts." Like Murphy, Lawrie will now head to the ScandinavianMasters.
Earlier in the day, Paul McGinley signed for a 71 to dip under par, oneunder, for the tournament while Damien McGrane (73) and Damian Mooney (74)played together and ended their weeks two and four over respectively.Darren Clarke disappointed with a 75 that left him down the field, also on two over.
As new sponsors Nissan brought the Irish Open back to its spiritual home inPortmarnock this year and confirmed its continued commitment to the event ,the fairytale story of an Irish winner also looked a real possibility at onestage. Instead that honour was left to Campbell and John O'Leary still holdsthe weary tag as the last Irishman to lift the trophy, way back in 1982.