Clarke has last Masters chance

TOUR NEWS:DARREN CLARKE makes a last throw of the dice in his late, late bid for a place in next week's US Masters when he competes in the Shell Houston Open, starting on Thursday. For the Ulsterman to earn a late invite, he will need to win. Nothing else will do.

Among those to spare themselves such a deadline were Spain’s Alvaro Quiros (number 25), Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng (number 47), Matthew Goggins of Australia (number 49) and South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen (number 50) who all booked invites with yesterday’s cut-off for the top-50 on the world rankings.

American Davis Love was the unlucky one, dropping from 47th prior to Bay Hill where he missed the cut to 51st in the list.

Like Clarke, Love will need to win in Houston to make the major. As of now, the Masters has 96 players expected to play, keeping it below the 100 that Augusta National prefers, and will only increase if a player not already exempt wins in Texas.

Clarke has two top-five finishes in previous Houston Opens: he was second in 2002 and tied-fourth in 2005, but those tournaments were played at different courses to this year’s event over the Tournament Course at Restone in Humble, Texas. Clarke did play the course once previously, in 2006, when he opened with a first round 68 but was forced to withdraw after his wife, Heather, took ill.

Pádraig Harrington, who at the Bay Hill had two bogeys in his closing three holes en route to a finishing 70 that left him in tied-11th, and Rory McIlroy – both fine-tuning their games for the Masters – are also competing in Houston. Graeme McDowell has decided to bypass it and will instead make another trip later this week to Augusta in the company of Ian Poulter and defending champion Trevor Immelman.

Meanwhile, Gareth Maybin – who has two top-10 finishes so far in his rookie season on the European Tour, but who hasn’t played since the Johnnie Walker classic in mid-February – resumes tournament play at this week’s Portuguese Open in Estoril. Paul McGinley, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy, Michael Hoey and Jonathan Caldwell are also in the field.

World Rankings

1 Tiger Woods (USA) 10.09pts

2 Phil Mickelson (USA) 8.51

3 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 7.40

4 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 6.28

5 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 5.92

6 Vijay Singh (Fij) 5.64

7 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 4.91

OTHERS: 17 Rory McIlroy (N Irl) 3.99, 44 Graeme McDowell (N Irl) 2.39, 78 Darren Clarke (N Irl) 1.72, 91 Gareth Maybin (N Irl) 1.54.

Race to Dubai

1 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) €1,367,086

2 Paul Casey (Eng) €1,145,238

3 Rory McIlroy (N Irl) €885,041

4 Oliver Wilson (Eng) €853,045

5 Sergio Garcia (Spa) €852,944

6 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) €565,984

7 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) €548,274

8 Henrik Stenson (Swe) €522,817

9 Ross Fisher (Eng) €494,846

10 Richard Sterne (Rsa) €493,925