'Old fella' Clarke bows out

By Peter Thorley NORTHLAND'S Dale Clarke was left cursing a below-average start to the Regency Under-23 championships in Hastings, which cost him the chance to contest for the title in the latter rounds.
A three-over 76 on the opening round, combined with a 75 on Friday hamstrung his efforts to compete for the title on Saturday.
"The first two rounds were horrible, I don't want to even think about that ... on the second day especially I was doing really well but lost concentration during the round and dropped four shots right there," he said.
After disappointing rounds on Thursday and Friday, Clarke raced up the leaderboard in the two final rounds of the tournament on Saturday with a par 72 and a three-under 69 but couldn't haul in Masterton teenager Ben Campbell, who upset two-time winner Danny Lee for the title.
Recent rain and more punitive rough this year saw the Bridge Pa course fight back to provide a much sterner test than last year, with only the two top players finishing under par.
Clarke finished to share fifth place with Takaka's Sean Riordan at four-over par, with Sherwood Park's Gary-John Hill finishing in 18th place, with a combined score of 10-over. Wellsford's Brad Bonnington got into trouble on the final at the tough course, finishing on 12-over. Bonnington was the leading Northlander going into the final round, but uncharacteristically blew out to record a seven-over 79. Hill and Bonnington will have another shot at the title but for Clarke it was his last hurrah - he will be 23 this year. "At least I finished on a good note [with the 69]. "I was pretty happy with that and if I could have matched that throughout the tournament, well who knows? I'm an old fella now so we'll never know," he said.
Clarke was surprised to hear Lee hadn't won the title, after the Rotorua player won his second title last year at Bridge Pa with a score of 20-under.
"It proves he's human, I suppose although Danny's a pretty awesome talent. Gary, Brad and I have played him quite a few times and he's pretty hard to beat, but obviously not unbeatable."
Clarke said it was a big upset to see Lee beaten after he blitzed the Bridge Pa course in 2007 to win with a score of 20-under.
The round of the tournament went to Hamilton's Douglas Millington, who shot a six-under 66 yesterday to claim third place on even par 288. Another Masterton player Michael Schofield was fourth on three-over 291, one shot ahead of Riordan and Clarke.
The three Northland players and team manager Graeme Hill returned home yesterday morning after being away for eight days, with the Hastings tournament following the national provincial under-23 tournament in Taupo.
"I have to say a big `thank you' to Northland Golf for all their help at the Hastings event, they paid for a lot of our expanses and that was beyond what most of the associations did for their players, and we were all really grateful for it," Clarke said.
He said there were two more provincial teams' tournaments left in the season.
Given the support of the association on this trip, he was keen to participate in both the Grant Clemance tournament at Mount Maunganui and the SBS Invitational at Invercargill.