Darren Clarke had to hire a private jet to make his tee time for the third round of the Spanish Open, returning from England after realizing he had made the cut.
Clarke shot a par 72 Saturday at the Real Golf Club de Seville, teeing off at 8:45 a.m. local time after being up most of the night.
Believing he had missed the cut, Clarke flew to his home in Surrey on a commercial flight. No sooner had he begun to relax with his two sons than Clarke received a series of phone calls telling him that his 69 Friday left him at 144, good enough to play on the weekend.
The player from Northern Ireland attempted to catch a flight from London's Gatwick airport, only to miss it after becoming caught in traffic. A private jet was located at Oxford airport, and he was able to depart at 2 a.m. Saturday on a flight to Malaga. He then had a two-hour drive to Seville.
``I had just 53 minutes sleep before I had to get up and go to the course,'' Clarke said. ``But it would have been unprofessional of me not to make an attempt to get back, given all the hard work off the sponsors and officials to lay on such a good tournament this weekend.
``I have left tournaments before thinking I had missed the cut, but only ever got as far as an airport before being recalled.''
Clarke didn't give the exact details of his costly mistake.
``It was cheap to fly back home on a scheduled plane and extortionate to get back here,'' he said. ``I felt pretty tired at times but finished birdie-par-birdie, which was good.''
