Darren Clarke looks to be a dream teammate as he successfully defended the American Family Insurance Championship in the Champions Tour’s only team event on Sunday.
Clarke who won this event alongside Thomas Bjorn last year, teamed up with Champions Tour newbie Ben Crane and he tasted success again as the pair combined for a one shot win over Kenny Perry and George McNeill at TPC Wisconsin.
“It was a hard day for us both and we both stepped up and made some clutch putts and clutch shots when we really had to down the stretch,” said Clarke, a four-time Ryder Cup winner as a player.
“We said at the start of the week, our goal was to get ourselves in the mix on the back nine on Sunday and that’s what we did.”
Clarke and Crane posted a four-under-par round of 67 in the Sunday four ball format to end the week on 30-under-par. The pair had opened a three shot lead overnight after a tournament record 17-under round in the scramble format.
Sunday was a day for patience as the pair didn’t make a birdie until the par-5 7th but they managed to grind out the result with birdies on the 11th, 12th and 16th.
It’s a sixth Champions Tour win in all for Clarke while Crane, who recently turned 50, tasted his first victory on the senior circuit.
“Just brilliant. To have Ben, you know, it was great last year having Thomas as a partner. Then to come here again and to have Ben as my partner this year has been just absolutely brilliant,” added 57-year-old Clarke.
“To be able to go back to back, you need special players to win any tournament if you’re going to be a team. I’ve been fortunate, I’ve had two of them in a row.
“To come here, to see his excitement, to see everything about — you know, when you play on a team thing, you’re not just playing for yourself, you’re playing for your partner. It’s different.
“There’s a different type of pressure there, there’s a different type of enjoyment there. To see Ben’s exuberance, his excitement, everything about it just helped me. I’m the slightly older one, I’m 57, he’s just turned 50. I’ve seen a little bit before and been around a little bit.
“He’s like a proper rookie today, he’s just excited. Just loved the thrill of being in there. It was just absolutely brilliant all week.”
The American gave all the credit to the 2011 Open champion who guided the pair through a tricky spell at the start of the round.
“You can see why this guy’s won Ryder Cup after Ryder Cup,” Crane said. “It’s just elite golf, elite mentally. We didn’t have our best stuff. As fun as yesterday was, is as tough as today was.”
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