Congratulations to Darren Clarke

Darren Clarke, an Ulsterman, shows that Irish golfers may be the best in the world, and learning to play in Northern Ireland makes a person tough in all sorts of way, especially in the noggin. I’ve driven by Royal Portrush, a course on which his two boys played this morning, and admired the course and even more the sorts of players who make that course home!

PHILIP REID, Golf Correspondent at Royal St George’s, Sandwich

GOLF: THE CORONATION was belated, but arguably all the sweeter for the wait. And, in truth, who really saw this coming? In one of those uplifting deeds which sport, in all its glory, throws to the unsuspecting hordes on only the rarest of occasions, Darren Clarke won this 140th edition of the British Open over the quirky links of Royal St George’s with a grace and display of shot-making that equalled any of those great champions who had gone before him.

On a grey day with a constant wind coming in off the English channel to accentuate the challenge, Clarke – a 42-year-old Ulsterman who had watched without the slightest touch of envy as two other players from his part of the world claimed Major titles over the past 13 months – took his turn to achieve destiny with a final round of 70 for a winning aggregate total of 275, five-under-par, which left him three strokes clear of runners-up Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.

“It’s been a dream since I was a kid to win the Open, like any kid’s dream is,” said Clarke, after a day when he kept his composure and finished a job that was only half-done on Friday when he shared the midway lead and only three-quarters complete on Saturday evening when he finished with a one-shot lead over Johnson. Yesterday, there was no denying him, with even a traditional final-round charge from Mickelson failing to deflect him from his appointed course.

Clarke’s victory completed another extraordinary time for Irish golf, enabling him to join Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy – the past two winners of the US Open – in an elite group of Major champions. And, with Pádraig Harrington’s three Major title successes, going back to his breakthrough win in this championship in 2007, it means Irish players have won six of the last 17. Surely a golden generation in the sport.