It was billed as the battle between Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke for the top spot in the European money list. But the Dutch Open was claimed by Stephen Leaney yesterday when the 31-year old-Australian with the David Duval sunglasses shot 68 for a 19-under-par 269 to win by four strokes from Bernhard Langer.
Westwood's third-round 66, leaving him four adrift of Leaney going into the last round, gave him high hopes of repeating last year's victory in Hilversum, where he came from five behind with a 63. But his putter was "cold" and a final round 69 for a total of 274 forced him to settle for joint third place, with Swede Mathias Gronberg (69) and Argentina's Angel Cabrera (68) one behind Langer, who shot 68.
Westwood's further £43,655 prizemoney nudged his total winnings to £1,014,165 - nearly £900,000 has come in his last eight outings - but that was not good enough to improve his third position behind Clark (£1,095,794), who birdied two of the last five holes for a 71, and the absent Ernie Els, runner-up in the Open a week earlier on £1,105,723.
The field never got closer than two shots behind former Eisenhower Trophy Amateur Leaney, who turned in an impeccable performance dropping only one stroke in four days over the testing North Sea links despite a fickle breeze and never once tangling with the bunkers. Shades of Tiger Woods at St Andrews.
It was the second time he had held off Westwood in the event to claim the £140,823 prize-money. In 1998 he went head to head with him and emerged victorious, fending off the intimidating challenge of Clarke and Nick Price for good measure.
The Western Australian, who earlier that year had taken the Moroccan Open title by eight strokes admitted: "I like links golf and I like front running. All but one of my nine wins have come when I led."
He ranks outside the top 100 in the putting statistics but looked far from a duffer with the short stick yesterday as he confidently slotted four birdies from eight holes, the key being a 25 footer at the seventh after a glorious four-iron approach.
"I've gone back to the putter I used for the best part of 12 years after chopping and changing," explained the man who was forced out of golf for 18 months after surgery in 1993 to remove a blood clot, which cringingly entailed extracting two ribs through his shoulder.
"After the two wins in 1998 my expectations were high," says Leaney. "I set myself unreasonable goals, but I'm right back on my game mentally with total self-belief.
"I bet there are other guys who made more birdies than me, but my main goal was not to make a bogey. I had total belief in my swing and I was really on mentally, which I've not been for the last six or eight months."
Langer, meanwhile, is still waiting for his first win since 1997, but the runners-up cheque of £93,882 took his European careers earnings through the £7 million barrier. Only £10 million man Colin Montgomerie is ahead of him.
Padraig Harringon shot a final round of 69 to finish two shots behind Clarke on 281 while Eamonn Darcy closed with a 72 to finish on a three under par total of 285.
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