Darren Clarke had suggested the day before that the only way to stop Patrik Sjoland from winning the European Masters at Crans sur Sierre was to steal the Swede's putter. But yesterday in the final round, Sven Struver found another way. That was to come up with a third eagle-two of the weekend and to birdie the 18th twice in 10 minutes.

That enabled Struver to overcome a four-shot deficit to Sjoland going into the final day and then beat the Swede in a sudden-death play-off at the first extra-hole, also the 18th. Clarke, who began the final round five adrift of Sjoland, could have unlocked the secret to catching the Swede, too, without pilfering any putter. If he had not double-bogeyed the third, the key would have lain in the exhilarating four birdies over the last five holes that the Ulsterman produced as he saw even third place slipping away.

His magnificent finale run did, though, enable him to take third with a 67 for 19-under-par, two shots behind the playoff pair. But the £50,00 he earned still did not unlock the door to top place on Europe's rankings.

That was because England's Lee Westwood gradually lifted his game over the weekend and his tie for 12th place earned him enough to keep Clarke at bay by £5,498 on top of the order of merit.

When it was put to him by one hapless hack that he could take heart from at least a third to go with his seconds of recent times, it was like lighting blue touch-paper. "Bollocks to finishing third," snarled Clarke, still wondering how on earth he could have thrown away his playoff chance by double-bogeying the short third.

"It knocked me back after getting off to such a good start," assessed Clarke, when remembering painfully the tee shot which sent his ball very nearly fading ungracefully out of bounds before crashing through trees down to a grassy bank. His recovery only skipped through the green and then he stubbed his pitch back. "It was such a stupid bogey and cost me dearly in the end. I hit a bad six-iron.

"After that I tried to get back into it but the guys were too strong.

"I want to win but I ain't making things happen on Sundays. A 67 wasn't bad but I keep running up against guys playing a bit better. I gave myself an awful lot of chances but couldn't make them."

Clarke will get another chance to overtake Westwood this week but time is running out. And the Englishman will play one more event in the run up to the end of the season in five-tournaments' time. Clarke will miss the Lancome Trophy but Westwood will not.

If Clarke can reproduce yesterday's form of the late holes he will be up there again this week at Forest of Arden.

As he said, though, there are always players about ready to thwart him and Struver proved a prime example. He once came from seven shots behind Ernie Els to win his first title, the South African PGA Championship, and the son of a Hamburg teaching pro is a dogged opponent. His two on the magnificent par-four seventh followed two eagle-twos the previous day and it drew him alongside a faltering Sjoland. Then just as it looked as though the Swede's fightback would still earn him £133,330 Ryder Cup points, the German's shot to just three feet on the last for birdie earned him his last-ditch playoff chance. A chance he took in grand fashion, holing again for birdie on the 18th when it became the first of sudden-death, this time from 10ft after Sjoland had missed from a similar length.

There was double disappointment for Irish hopes yesterday because Padraig Harrington's 65 in the third round proved to be flattering deception, as he posted a 73 for only tied 30th place on seven-under-par. When it looked as though he would begin the Ryder Cup campaign with a good store of points, he finished up having to settle for only 6,594.

Clarke has 50,000 to start his campaign but that was no consolation. Nor would there be from his manager Andrew `Chubby' Chandler after a call to the organisers of the World Matchplay next month. Chandler has received an invitation for his charge Westwood but not for the Irishman who made his debut last year at Wentworth. "I rang IMG to find out about Darren's prospects," said Chandler, "but the signs are not encouraging."