Fan favourite Darren Clarke surprises many to capture his first major.
Playing a golf course that looked like the moon -- if the moon was irrigated -- Darren Clarke went well over it on Sunday, bringing the golfing world with him.
There are popular wins and surprising wins, but Clarke's out-of-nowhere triumph at the British Open Sunday was unsurprisingly popular.
It was as if a script-writer kept trying to shoehorn in one compelling element after another into an already full storyline: well-liked veteran, past his golfing prime looking for his first taste of major championship glory at age 42? Yes.
Local hero? Clarke's from Northern Ireland, so he qualifies.
How about a single father of two boys who lost his wife Heather to a lengthy battle with cancer in 2006 at age 39, and has only now regained his equilibrium, helped by an engagement to a former beauty queen?
Oh, and can we make our winner a bon vivant, fond of cigars, Guinness, fast cars, and possessor of a quick grin and gently curving belly?
It was a popular win as Clarke is a popular player - always good but not quite good enough; the five-time European Ryder Cup member has a spotty major championship record; his last top-10 a tie for third at the Open in 2001.
"It's weird. It hasn't sunk in yet," he said on television shortly after he tapped in at the 18th hole at Royal St. George's, securing a three-shot win and the Claret Jug.
"I want to share it with everybody. I'm a normal ordinary guy and I just want people to enjoy it. The support I've had over the week has been incredible. The people like me and they all seem very pleased."
Clarke posed with an empty Claret Jug, and promised to add some "nice, Irish black stuff" to it by evening.
The win was an answer of sorts for Clarke, who was among the leading lights on the European Tour in the 1990s and early 2000s before his wife's health and his golf game took a turn.
Despite his struggles Northern Ireland - population 1.8-million - has been the epicenter of the sport for the past year or so. Countrymen Graham McDowell won the US Open in 2010 and Rory McIlroy was the favourite this week after his dominant showing at the US Open in June - a victory so complete, comparison's to Tiger Woods bubbled, even if prematurely.
Clarke seemed lost on the trail he'd carved. Now he was being welcomed back in front.
As McDowell noted, tongue firmly in tweet: "Darren Clarke aiming to be the first Northern Irish golfer to win a major in almost four weeks."
This week McDowell missed the cut and McIlroy was never a factor. But Clarke was a presence. Having moved back to Portrush to raise his sons, Tyrone, 12, and Conor,10, he was comfortable on the barren, wind swept links at Sandwich this week.
He was raised in those conditions at Royal Portrush; one of the jewels of Northern Ireland golf.
With gusting 50 km/h winds sending the rain sideways on Saturday and at times Sunday, Clarke went into the weekend tied for the lead and not at all bothered at the daunting weather he was about to encounter.
"I believe the forecast for the weekend is very, very poor, which I quite look forward to," he said. "I've been doing a lot of practicing in bad weather, because that's usually what we get at Portrush."
But as much an anything else the week was a reminder again that golf has different flavours and for those watching at home in a heat wave the wind and the rain and the cold was like air conditioning for the golfing soul.
Watching rain suits billow like spinnakers in winds unsuitable for a baseball game let alone trying to guide the trajectory of a golf ball is just fun. There is no other way to describe it.
This Open championship especially so, even if it wasn't especially close. Phil Mickelson's amazing front-nine charge, where he went out in a five-under-par 30 and briefly shared the lead with Clarke came undone when he missed short par putts on the 11th and the 13th to slip back to a tie for second.
Another American, Dustin Johnson, tried to make himself heard, but his second shot on the par-five 14th went out of bounds and that was it for him as he tied Mickelson at two-under-par, three shots behind the leader.
Clarke, meanwhile, played a game that was less about science - spin rates and launch angles - and more about sport. He played with instinct and was rewarded for the well-executed leaps of faith - "this hump will send the ball that direction; the wind will knock yardage down by this much" -- links golf requires.
He smiled at the crowd that swelled as his win become ever more certain. He silenced their roars with a gentle finger to his lips in respect of his playing partner, Johnson, as he stood over his final shots.
And the people listened, because Clarke was one of them: humbled by the game and by life, enjoying a week when for once one of them seemed to be in control of both.
"I've tried and I've tried and I've tried and as close as I've come to being annoyed for with the game, I still had the belief," Clarke said of his struggles.
And now he had his prize, finally.
Over the moon is about right.
