Darren Clarke and Ben Crane close out AmFam Championship in tight finish
MADISON – Before the 2026 American Family Championship began at TPC Wisconsin, Madison native Jerry Kelly reflected briefly on why he’s still out on the course on a near-weekly basis in his 30 th season as a touring professional. Naturally he opened with a quip, ringed with some
MADISON – Before the 2026 American Family Championship began at TPC Wisconsin, Madison native Jerry Kelly reflected briefly on why he’s still out on the course on a near-weekly basis in his 30 th season as a touring professional. Naturally he opened with a quip, ringed with some truth, that he’s starting to question his motivation, but then proffered the expected answer: Pure competition.
“That's the way I feel about this tour,” Kelly continued. “It's one of the purest forms of competition that we can have. The guys aren't really in it for the money like some other tours. It is, hey, we want that trophy, we want to be holding it.”
Kelly has held the trophy twice in his hometown when the championship was a stroke play event. Tournament host, Madison resident and Edgerton native Steve Stricker hoisted it once.
Unfortunately, their respective teams could not mount a run at more hardware on June 7, as the team of Darren Clarke and Ben Crane fired a 30-under par over three rounds to edge Kenny Perry and Greg McNeill by one shot.
After Crane missed his long par putt to win on the last, Clarke followed by gently rolling in his nervy attempt on the 18 th hole to win the tournament. Clarke started walking to the hole during the putts final revolutions and Crane excitedly took his hat off and fist pumped.
"He stepped up there; it was unbelievable," Crane said. "It was so much fun. You can see why this guy's won Ryder Cup after Ryder Cup. It's just elite golf, elite mentally."
The win is Clarke's second straight AmFam Championship, as he paired with Thomas Bjørn to win the inaugural team event last year. Crane filled in for the injured Bjørn this week.
“It was a hard day for us both and we both stepped up and made some clutch putts and clutch shots when we really had to down the stretch,” said Clarke, who won the 2011 Open Championship. “We said at the start of the week, our goal was to get ourselves in the mix on the back nine on Sunday and that's what we did.”
