Golf across the globe: Clarke back in the winners' circle

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Adam Scott wasn't the only golfer in the world to drain a long putt for the win last week. Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke had a 40 footer to thank for his victory at the BMW Asian Open. Take a look at what else went on in the world of golf.

Darren Clarke earned his first European Tour event in five years at last week's BMW Asian Open. (Walton/Getty Images)

Schedules

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LAST WEEK

Event: BMW Asian Open
Sanctioned by: European Tour, Asian Tour
• Clarke stepped back into the European Tour's winners' circle for the first time in five years with his 40-foot putt on the 72nd hole to finish one stroke ahead of Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen.
• The last win for Clarke came at the 2003 World Golf Championships -- NEC Invitational. He has struggled on the Tour since the passing of his wife, Heather, in 2006, but with the 8-under par BMW Asian Open victory, Clarke recorded his 11th European Tour win. Just for the record, the Ulsterman also has two wins and 25 top-10 finishes on the PGA TOUR.
• Incidentally, this was Clarke's first visit to China, which hosted the tournament at the Thomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club. It would be safe to say the jubilant winner will be returning after this.
• Other notable finishes in Shanghai came from Robert Dinwiddie of England who -- in a tie for third -- carded his best finish since graduating from the Challenge Tour last year, Francesco Molinari -- also tied for third -- who represented Italy alongside his brother Edoardo in the 2007 OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup, China's Lin Wen Tang -- the third man in third place, Henrik Stenson of Sweden in sixth place, Martin Kaymer of Germany in a tie for seventh and South Africa's Retief Goosen, who finished tied for 11th place.

Event: Stanford International Pro-Am
Sanctioned by: LPGA
• With Lorena Ochoa out of the field last week while she sought some rest, eyes inevitably turned to the other big names on Tour to fill those winning shoes. And Annika Sorenstam answered that call. With an 8-under-par score for the tournament, Sorenstam entered into a playoff with five-time winner Paula Creamer and secured her 71st victory -- and second of the 2008 season -- after just one hole of a sudden death.
• Sorenstam might have had the upper hand on Creamer before the playoff even began, though, having previously emerged triumphant from 15 of the 21 playoffs she had been in, while 21-year-old Creamer was experiencing an LPGA playoff for the very first time.
• With her $300,000 prize money, Sorenstam retains her second-place spot behind Ochoa on the official money list but trails the Mexican phenom by $826,269.
• Other notable finishes at the Stanford International Pro-Am came from Karrie Webb and Young Kim in a tie for third, Angela Park in a tie for sixth and Lindsey Wright, who tied for ninth.

Event: Vodacom Origins of Golf Gauteng
Sanctioned by: Sunshine Tour
• South Africa's 26-year-old Tyrone Van Aswegen earned his maiden Sunshine Tour win at Pretoria Country Club after a final-round 7-under 65 last week. The excited winner, who finished 15 under for the week, quoted Gary Player in his post-round interviews on how he was able to keep his cool. "Like Gary Player says," Aswegen noted. "It's the six inches between your ears that makes or breaks you coming down the homestretch." Fellow South African Trevor Immelman can attest to how far following in Gary Player's footsteps can get you...
• Other notable finishes in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Gauteng came from Thomas Aiken, Jean Hugo and Marc Cayeux, all tied for sixth and James Kamte and George Coetzee, who both tied for 16th.

Event: Tsuyura Open
Sanctioned by: Japan Tour
• At 12 under for the week, Korea's SK Ho took home the trophy after three consecutive rounds in the 60s and an opening-round score of 70. Despite a low final round of 66 from Kyung-Tae Kim, Ho was able to hold off the Sunday surge and force a one-shot margin for the win. Ho began the day in second place, one shot back from 27-year-old Hiroshi Iwata of Japan, but Iwata only managed to fire out an even-par round on Sunday dropping back to solo third place.
• Other notable names on the leaderboard were Brendan Jones in a tie for fourth, Shingo Katayama and Toru Taniguchi in a tie for seventh and last week's runner up Taichi Teshima in a tie for 12th.

Charl Schwartzel's best finish so far this year was third place at the Qatar Masters. (Franklin/Getty Images)

NEXT WEEK

Event: Open de España
Sanctioned by: European Tour
• After a week in the USA and two weeks in China, the European Tour returns to its home continent for the Open de España where South Africa's Charl Schwartzel will be defending his 2007 title. Other past winners of this event include big names like Niclas Fasth, Sergio Garcia, Robert Karlsson, Padraig Harrington, Seve Ballesteros and Colin Montgomerie -- two of which are in the field this week, Fasth and Montgomerie.
• Here are some guys to keep an eye on when you're watching the Open de España leaderboard this week: Pablo Martin and Miguel Angel Jiménez of Spain, Robert-Jan Derksen of the Netherlands and Grégory Bourdy of France.

Event: SemGroup Championship presented by John Q. Hammons
Sanctioned by: LPGA
• The LPGA heads to Oklahoma this week where 31-year-old Mi Hyun Kim will be defending after her 3-under-par finish in 2007 tied her with Juli Inkster, which led to a one-hole playoff with Kim emerging as the champion.
• Here are some names to look out for at the par-71 Cedar Ridge Country Club this week: the rested Lorena Ochoa looking to keep her streak alive, Laura Diaz, Creamer, Cristie Kerr and Jeong Jang. Sorenstam will not be competing in the SemGroup Championship presented by John Q. Hammons.

Event: GS Caltex Maekyung Open
Sanctioned by: Asian Tour
• The Asian Tour will play in Korea this week at the Nam Seoul Country Club. Kim Kyung-tae of Korea won the event last year with a whopping five-shot margin after rounds of 70, 66, 67 and 67 respectively. Kim is back in the field this year hoping to keep his Maekyung Open title.
• Other players to watch this week are Digvijay Singh, Lam Chih-Bing and Danny Chia.

Event: The Crowns
Sanctioned by: Japan Golf Tour
• The Nagoya Golf Club Wago Course welcomes the Japan Golf Tour this week for The Crowns where Hirofumi Miyase will defend. Miyase's 2-under-par 278 at the par-70 course last year was enough to take home the crown, despite low scores such as 18 under, 11 under and 16 under the previous three years of the tournament.
• There are some past champions in the field this week worth keeping on your radar. Katayama won the event in 2006 and 2004, and Masashi Ozaki was the champion three consecutive years from 1995-1997 and also I 1987 and 1992 before that. Look out for those European Names in the field, too. This event has quite a few high-profile European players on its past champions list including Justin Rose, Darren Clarke and Seve Ballesteros.