Goosen shows off his trophy.
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Retief Goosen made winning the Smurfit European Open look as easy as can be
today and so added the title to the United States Open he captured in different,
but equally impressive, fashion two weeks ago.
The 35-year-old South African finished five clear of Lee Westwood and
Australians Richard Green and Peter O'Malley at the K Club's Smurfit Course near
Dublin to complete a double which was worth close to £1million.
As a result Goosen goes back to the top of the European Order of Merit he won
in 2001 and 2002 before handing it on to compatriot Ernie Els last season. It is
Els who now lies second.
How long he can keep the purple patch going remains to be seen, but he has
decided to pull out of this week's Scottish Open at Loch Lomond - as has Jesper
Parnevik because of injury - so he is refreshed for the Open at Royal Troon.
Clearly nobody in the world is playing better at the moment.
After putting his clubs away for nine days following his second major triumph
these were Goosen's words last Wednesday: "It's been a bit of a manic time, I'm
a bit tired, I don't think I'm quite ready to play. Perhaps I should have taken
another week off to get ready for Loch Lomond.
"We're playing a new course we haven't seen as well, but we'll see how it
goes."
Well, how it went was that, despite claiming he felt "brain dead" at the
start, he opened with a birdie on just about the toughest hole and followed an
opening 69 with a 66.
Goosen did describe his third round 72 as "rubbish", but he still led at the
end of it and when he added birdies on the third and fifth he was five clear.
It came down to three, but another birdie at the long 10th and he was back in
total control. The one on the 578-yard last, which had seen a handful of 10s and
an 11 during the week, was the icing on the cake.
At Shinnecock Hills a fortnight earlier he had to work rather harder. Phil
Mickelson led by one with two to play there, but double-bogeyed the 17th.
"I expected somebody to get a bit closer, but I played well and it turned out
my way," he added. "I was tired, but now I'm really tired."
Westwood, gunning for a third European Open victory, had a chance to finish
second on his own, but missed a nine-foot birdie putt on the last and had to
settle for a 71.
But the tie for the runners-up spot still provided a significant boost to his
Ryder Cup standing with only nine more events to come. Having been pushed down
to eighth place by Jean-Francois Remesy's French Open win last week he jumps
into sixth place.
The Worksop golfer commented: "I could have run him close, but nobody put any
pressure on him. I'm hitting the ball as well as perhaps I ever have, I just
need to go and spent some time on the putting green and find a little secret."
Green, also second last week, had a 66 and O'Malley 70 and that missed putt by
Westwood put O'Malley into the Open championship as the leading non-exempt
player in the tournament, Green and Remesy qualifying as the top two in a
mini-Order of Merit which has been running for the last two months.
Padraig Harrington finished with a triple bogey eight, twice going in the
water, and on five over was way down in 52nd position alongside Nick Faldo.
Yet, perhaps surprisingly, the Dubliner feels better about his chances in the
Open - his next tournament - than he did about the US Open after being in a
play-off with Sergio Garcia at the Buick Classic the previous Sunday.
"I'm swinging it 100 times better than then, but my short game was sharp that
week," said Harrington, who tied for fifth at Royal Troon seven years ago and
will be playing 54 holes there this week to learn all he can in relative peace
and quiet.
Darren Clarke, who abandoned an experiment with a belly putter after two days,
could not break par any day and finished six over. He too will hope to be
inspired by a return to Troon - he was joint second with Jesper Parnevik and led
by four at one stage.
Collated final-round scores and totals (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
275 Retief Goosen (Zim) 69 66 72 68
280 Richard Green (Aus) 70 78 66 66, Lee Westwood 69 69 71 71, Peter O'Malley
(Aus) 72 70 68 70
281 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 73 68 67 73, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 67 70 75 69
283 David Howell 69 72 75 67
284 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 73 72 67, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 75 69 69
285 Paul McGinley 70 71 71 73, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 72 69 72, Nick O'Hern
(Aus) 67 72 72 74, Paul Broadhurst 67 74 69 75
286 Gordon Brand Jnr 74 68 75 69, Paul Casey 72 74 71 69, Terry Price (Aus) 73
72 70 71, Justin Rose 73 76 72 65, Gary Evans 70 74 68 74, Joakim Haeggman (Swe)
72 74 70 70
287 Bradley Dredge 70 75 75 67, Gary Murphy 74 73 69 71, Phillip Price 75 72
70 70, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 72 73 75 67
288 Christopher Hanell (Swe) 74 73 74 67, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 73 75 67,
Andrew Oldcorn 74 73 71 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 72 69 76
289 Kenneth Ferrie 77 66 71 75, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 73 74 71 71
290 Marcel Siem (Ger) 74 74 70 72, Steve Webster 76 73 68 73, Marcus Fraser
(Aus) 72 73 74 71, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 71 72 77 70, David Carter 75 72 71 72,
Brian Davis 72 77 70 71, Brett Rumford (Aus) 72 73 77 68, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
74 73 73 70
291 James Kingston (Rsa) 72 68 75 76, Peter Lawrie 72 72 71 76, Charl
Schwartzel (Rsa) 72 76 71 72, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 74 71 73 73, Rob Rashell
(USA) 73 75 76 67, David Lynn 73 76 76 66
292 John Dwyer 73 75 71 73, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 73 69 76 74, Stephen
Gallacher 71 74 74 73, Matthew Blackey 69 73 77 73, Andrew Coltart 70 74 75 73,
Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 71 73 78, Anthony Wall 75 74 70 73, Robert Rock 72 72 78
70
293 Jose Manuel Carriles (Spa) 71 77 72 73, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 73 75 73
72, Padraig Harrington 70 76 76 71, Nick Faldo 74 72 74 73, Stephen Dodd 74 75
75 69, Philip Golding 75 73 73 72, Miles Tunnicliff 72 77 73 71
294 Robert Coles 74 73 75 72, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 71 76 78 69, Darren
Clarke 76 72 74 72, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 76 73 77 68, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 75 73
75 71
295 Jesus Arruti (Spa) 69 79 72 75, Andrew Marshall 74 74 74 73
296 Sandy Lyle 75 74 78 69, Simon Dyson 73 76 79 68
298 Paul Eales 78 71 75 74, Simon Khan 74 74 77 73
299 Ivo Giner (Spa) 76 73 78 72
300 Neil Manchip 73 76 73 78, Alastair Forsyth 72 73 77 78
301 Iain Pyman 73 72 79 77, Mark Foster 76 72 76 77
302 Ian Woosnam 75 74 78 75
306 Martin Erlandsson 71 76 81 78, Rolf Muntz (Ned) 78 70 76 82
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