The colourful Swede shot a closing one under par 70 for a total of 273 while Clarke, who started out the final day two behind and never succeeded in closing that gap, fired a 71 for 276.
Then Clarke hurtled off to the airport to catch a flight to Belfast to be with his wife, Heather, who is due to give birth to the couple’s first child any day now. Parnevik, who succeeds compatriot Joakim Haeggman as the new champion, admitted that the pressure of playing in front of a vociferous home crowd had proved difficult to master.
“It’s always nerve-wracking to play in the leading group on Sunday at home” he said. “The crowd want you to win, almost demanding it, and that puts pressure on you. “I didn’t play very well at all over the first six holes on Thursday but thanks to the enthusiastic crowd I played better and better. I’m very glad that I won because after winning in 1995 I didn’t know if I would get a second chance”.
Clarke, second to Stephen Leaney in the TNT Dutch Open after a final 63, couldn’t repeat those last heroics but still managed to collect £88,880 to climb into second place in the Volvo Ranking behind his close friend Lee Westwood. “I didn’t have the luck that I needed” he confessed. “After I bogeyed the 16th I knew it was over and I lost my concentration”.
Yorkshire’s Stephen Field surged through the field to take third place on 277 and his career-best cheque of £50,070 ensured him of retaining his card for next season. Swedes filled five of the first ten places to underscore their mastery of the event, but there was no joy for new professional Justin Rose, who missed the halfway cut by a stroke for the second successive week.
