Dunhill Links Championship: As if Darren Clarke had not suffered enough penance with his putter, one of his final acts in the Dunhill Links yesterday was to putt a ball across the slope of the 18th green and into the notorious Valley of Sin.

"That pretty much summed up my week," he admitted of a championship challenge that was effectively ruined on the vast putting surfaces of the Old Course.

In the end, after a closing round of 70 which featured 32 putts, Clarke had to settle for tied-fourth on 17-under-par 271. And he, more than anyone, knew that it could and should have been so much better.

"I couldn't have done any more," he said, "(because) I played superbly all week. If you just take a look at my putting statistics, that just sums up my week.

"There's nothing wrong with my game. I created chances everywhere all week and played well enough to win. But when you burn the edges . . . and burn the edges . . . and burn the edges, and they don't go in, there is nothing more you can do. Maybe one of these days the ball will go in."

The person with the closest view of Clarke's putting woes was his pro-am team partner, the financier Dermot Desmond, who described himself as "the meat in the sandwich" between Clarke and Lee Westwood in the final group.

Team Clarke/Desmond finished in sixth place, behind winning father and son pairing of Sam and Daniel Torrance.

Peter Lawrie could take satisfaction in a closing round 68 for 14-under-par 274, which left him in tied-12th position. And more importantly, the €66,948 he collected has secured him a place in the field for the season-ending Volvo Masters in Valderrama next month.

"I played nicely all week and to go around St Andrews without finding a bunker in two rounds (there are 112 bunkers) and to have just one bogey is good," said Lawrie.

Padraig Harrington finished with a 71 for 279, which left him in tied-35th place. "I'm not making it easy for myself," he confessed. "If you play badly, you have to question if it is your swing or your mental game. I've been looking at my swing all year, and been so focused on it, that the reality now is that it is more mental. I made a lot of silly mistakes, let a lot of mental errors creep in and didn't hole any putts. But I'm not far away."