GOLF/Players Championship: As the last Irishman standing in the Players championship, Darren Clarke may have expected a wee bit of luck to rub off. Not a bit of it.

On a final day that was frustrating and exasperating, with three dropped shots over the final three holes, Clarke's finishing round of 73 for level par 288 meant he had long departed for a few days in Bahamas before the newest champion was crowned.

"I couldn't have been any worse if I had tried," said Clarke, who was rushing to get a flight to the island of Abaca in the Bahamas, where he has a business commitment with Lee Westwood and cricketer Freddie Flintoff.

"I couldn't have taken any more," added Clarke, reaffirming the point.

With a top-10 finish in his sights standing on the 16th tee, it all went horribly wrong when a catalogue of errors finished in a bogey six on the par five. Then, on the 17th hole, an untimely gust of helping wind as his ball was in flight meant he airmailed the green and took a double-bogey five.

Yet, the signs that it would not be his day came as early as the third hole. Having birdied the second, Clarke's tee-shot to the short third finished up on the right edge of the green. In removing a little leaf nestled beside it, Clarke was unsure whether the ball had moved. "I called the referee over and called a penalty on myself. Because if it has moved, because if there is the slightest doubt, you call a penalty on yourself," said Clarke.

Still he was "grinding it out" and "doing great", thanks to a run of 10 pars and two birdies, until he reached the 16th. "Then everything goes wrong that could go wrong," said Clarke.

On the 16th, he hit it in to the right rough off the tee. "I'm three-under and looking pretty good and try to do the right thing, to chip it back out onto the fairway to leave myself a wedge in."

But the ball failed to find the fairway, finishing up in more rough, from where he put his approach into a greenside bunker and, after splashing out to six feet, he missed the putt.

His misery was compounded by the 17th, where his nine-iron found the water. "I'm glad it is over," said Clarke, before rushing for the plane to the Bahamas.

If Clarke failed to make a final round move, there was to be no such problems for the 54-hole leader: Stephen Ames confounded his doubters to stay on course for the title.

Ames more than irked Tiger Woods prior to their first round encounter at the Accenture Matchplay in La Costa last month when, asked if he felt he had any chance, he remarked: "Anything can happen, especially where he's hitting the ball." Woods proceeded to win by a record 9 and 8 margin.

Yesterday, though, Ames was on target to have the last laugh. While Woods finished with a 75 to languish well down the field on one-over 289, Ames played cool and calm golf over the front nine to increase his advantage to four strokes over Retief Goosen.

Prior to the final pairings setting out, the tournament looked to be wide open. Surely Ames couldn't fend off the quality, proven players lurking on his shoulder? Who would it be? Vijay? Sergio? Retief? An improbable charge from Tiger? Or Ernie?

Most felt Garcia would be the man. Again. And, again, he proved not to be.

As he took the walk from the putting green to the first tee, all 50 yards of it, there was a spring in his step. The crowds clapped, shouted his name and the mischievous wink back to those on the other side of the rope confirmed that this new-look Sergio Garcia, with longer hair protruding from the back of his cap and a goatee taking away much of the youthful image, still had a touch of arrogance. Despite the make-over, however, it was soon obvious that the Spaniard's old failings in the final round of a big tournament remained.

From being considered the prime contender prior to teeing off, Garcia's quest for the title had all but disappeared by the time he reached the sixth tee, after a sequence of bogey, bogey, double bogey, bogey from the second. Five dropped shots in four holes, his frailty with the putter again obvious, meant that Garcia became the course's latest victim - and the fall guy, yet again, in the final round of a big tournament.

Technically the Players is not a major; but it is a critical test of a player's ability and, when the pressure was on yesterday, Garcia showed shortcomings that have haunted him previously when he had one hand on a trophy. In a recent magazine interview, he was asked what one thing he would like from someone else's game, and his response - "Tiger's putting" - pretty much summed up his one true weakness.

On such days as these, a touch of good fortune is required. Like Fred Couples holing out with a nine-iron at the 13th, for the fourth hole-in-one of the tournament, or Ian Poulter chipping-in from the primary rough for birdie on the 11th. At least they had feel-good moments.

For Garcia, on this Sunday, such moments were nonexistent; and he wasn't alone, on a course playing hard and firm.

Others to experience woes included Ernie Els, who manoeuvred his way into serious contention by getting to seven-under par after 11 holes, being five-under for the day. But a dreadful run on the homeward journey destroyed his title hopes as he dropped shots on the 14th, 15th and then put his approach into the water on the 16th, although he saved par, only to record a double bogey on the 17th.