| Druids
Glen, Dublin, 5th July 1998
- David Carter, who needed an emergency operation to save his life in Dubai last
year after suffering fluid on the brain, won the Murphy's Irish Open and his first
European Tour title in his fourth year the hard way. He
had stormed four shots ahead, but in an understandably nervy finish at the ultra-tough
Druids Glen course, the Johannesburg-born Englishman faltered. His
lead melted away in a flurry of late dropped shots but he refused to let the prize
slip from his grasp. After
finding water with his second shot from a tricky lie under a tree at the 18th,
Carter sank a 20-footer to force a playoff against European number one Colin Montgomerie.
Carter found
the green in two on the same hole second time around and it was enough to secure
the £159,992 winner's cheque. Montgomerie's
drive at the first extra hole landed in heavy rough and the Scot, seeking an Irish
Open hat-trick, went into the lake short of the green with his second. After
Montgomerie just missed the hole with his chip -- his fifth shot -- he conceded
defeat. Carter
established his four-shot lead by the turn, following an opening bogey with four
birdies, and he was five ahead of Montgomerie with eight holes to go. But
then Carter stumbled. He double-bogeyed the difficult 13th by driving into a stream
and bogeyed the long 16th when he found deep grass. In fact, he was lucky to find
his ball. Then
came his trial at the last which was to eventually earn him the title. Both
players had finished on six-under-par 278, Montgomerie carding a three-under 68
to Carter's 71. At
last season's Desert Classic, Carter was found in a coma by friends after suffering
from fluid on the brain caused by a water sports accident. He needed emergency
surgery to relieve pressure on his brain and remove fluid. Doctors
told him he would have died if he had been found an hour later. After
three weeks in hospital and convalescence he came back in April to finish second
in the Cannes Open, equalling his own course record 62. "I
owe a lot of people a thousand, thousand thanks," said Carter, "especially
my friend Iain Pyman from England who found me unconscious in Dubai and got me
to hospital. "I'm
so lucky but I feel this win was just meant to be after what has happened in my
life. "It
was obviously going to be difficult for me coming down the stretch, having not
won before but I just kept believing in myself. "I
was lucky to find my ball on 16 and only make bogey and then on the last to sink
the putt and get up and down to make the playoff, was just as if it was all meant
to be." Montgomerie's
consolation was to move back to the top of the European Order of Merit with his
£106,632 second prize. | 
