Clarke stunned to set the pace
Twenty four hours after nearly walking out of The Belfry in disgust, Darren Clarke did what he thought was impossible today.
The Ryder Cup star began the Quinn Direct British Masters with a six-under-par 66 to be joint leader with Swede Peter Hanson.
A pro-am round which he described as “terrible” had Clarke considering a withdrawal from the event.
Everybody would have understood such a decision with his wife Heather fighting cancer, but the 37-year-old thought it through before getting in his car.
“I talked myself out of it,” he said. “It would not have been the right thing to do to go home. It would have been unprofessional.
“I went to the range and it was either break a few clubs or have a rest and come back later. I chose the second one, went back at six o’clock, worked for a couple of hours and managed to find something that semi-worked.”
When he started with a three-putt bogey at the 10th Clarke admits that walking in from there flashed through his mind again, but he went on to birdie four of the next seven holes.
Then, after bogeying the difficult 18th, he followed another birdie at the second with a five-wood to 15 feet for eagle on the next.
A closing birdie three was the icing on the cake and Clarke commented in all seriousness at his press conference: “The last thing I expected to be doing is sitting here talking to you guys after the way I played yesterday.”
His last tournament was the Houston Open three weeks ago – he pulled out after an opening 68 to return to his wife’s side – and added: “When the mind is obviously elsewhere and pre-occupied with other things it does seem to benefit my golf at times. If I had been able to learn that a long time ago I would be a much better player!”
Hanson’s one European tour title was the Spanish Open last year, but the 28-year-old reached seven under before three-putting the 18th – “that evil green” he called it.
It is so big and multi-tiered that Kenneth Ferrie’s caddie even waved the flag at him as he prepared to putt from over 100 feet.
But the English golfer, 11th in the race for places in this year’s Ryder Cup side, sent it racing 20 feet past and was another to three-putt as he returned a 70.
Paul Casey, the player just ahead of Ferrie on the table and therefore in the last automatic spot at present, did his chances of a second cap no harm at all with a five under 67.
It gave him a share of third place with US Open champion Michael Campbell and Swede Jarmo Sandelin.
A year ago Casey’s game was in a dreadful state with a string of missed cuts and a withdrawal from the US Open after an opening 85, but words of encouragement from the likes of Campbell and
Thomas Bjorn – “guys who had experienced a loss in confidence” – have helped him fight back.
Campbell was playing his first competitive round since the Masters over a month ago. That was the New Zealander’s third missed cut in a row in America, but he has only to think back a year not to panic.
He also had a miserable start to 2005, but then finished fourth in this event and a month later, of course, held off Tiger Woods no less for his first major title at Pinehurst.
“I was very surprised really,” he said. “I had a month off without touching a club and had a lot of creases to iron out. I flew my coach over from America and things are working so far.”
Sandelin, who had to go back to the qualifying school to regain a tour card last November, was joint runner-up in the Italian Open last weekend and is starting to think big again.
Scot Andrew Coltart, like Sandelin given only one game on his Ryder Cup debut in 1999, and England’s Oliver Wilson also reached five under – Wilson after five successive birdies from the 13th – but finished with bogeys.
Compatriot Colin Montgomerie had to settle for a level par 72, but Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington had a day to forget. They could do no better than 75, and Harrington had to birdie two of the last three for that.
The return of Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood from America brought them rounds of 68 and 70 respectively and Order of Merit leader David Howell, back in action after a month out with a back problem, is another on two under.
With a 69 Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam left many of his likely team trailing in his wake, but Sam Torrance, captain of the 2002 side at the course and Europe’s match-winner at The Belfry back in 1985, triple-bogeyed the last for a 79.
