Not content with having collected the biggest cheque ever won by an

Irish player, Darren Clarke has set his sights on wresting the Order of Merit title from his friend, Colin Montgomerie. It means that his tournament schedule from now until the end of the season will be geared towards that objective.

By sharing second place with Jesper Parnevik in the British Open at Royal Troon last Sunday, Clarke collected £150,000. This was £27,000 more than the previous highest by an Irishman -

the £123,000 reward Ronan Rafferty received for winning the

Palm Meadows Cup in Australia five years ago.

Rafferty remains the only Irish winner of the Order of Merit as it is currently constituted, a feat he achieved in 1989. But Christy

O'Connor Snr was the leading money winner in 1970, the year he captured a world record prize of £25,000 for the John Player

Classic at Hollinwell.

Winning the Order of Merit carries a 10-year exemption on the tour but more importantly, from Clarke's standpoint, it opens just about every important door internationally.

Not, mind you, that he is in need of any great help, given his current position of second in both the Order of Merit and Ryder Cup tables and an exempt status on the US Tour.

Then there is his elevation to 33rd in the Sony World Rankings.

Again, Rafferty set the standard here, rising as high as 18th at one stage. And Padraig Harrington, who was tied fifth at Troon, is up to

77th position while Paul McGinley's inclusion at 97th means there are three Irishmen in the top 100.

"There are a lot of things to be worked out and Chubby (his manager Andrew Chandler) and myself intend to have a serious look at my whole situation over the next few days," said Clarke in Troon yesterday. That will be in the secluded atmosphere of a Scottish fishing holiday, away from telephones, even of the mobile variety.

Clarke and his wife had a quiet celebration with friends on Sunday night. "Obviously it would have been a lot different had I won," he said. "I'm taking this week off but I plan to play in the

Scandinavian Masters and the Czech Open before heading for the USPGA

Championship."

He went on: "After that, we must decide which would be better for my development as a player, to stay in the US and compete with the top guys in the World Series, or to chase Order of Merit money in the

Smurfit European Open. One of the benefits of last weekend is that I

will certainly feel more comfortable, whatever the company."

As to his client's plans for next season, Chandler said: "It seems likely Darren will be taking up the option of starting the year on the US Tour. There are still important details to be worked out, however, with American officials over their requirements and with the

European Tour over releases." Since the championship was extended to four days, Clarke was the only Irishman to play in the final pairing on Sunday afternoon. And he made many new friends in Scotland, not only for his overall performance but for his co-operation with the media. Indeed, a particular point was made of the fact that he was happy to walk half a mile down the South Beach for an extra television interview, whereas Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo declined to take a one-minute buggy ride to a press conference when unhappy with their rounds.

The performances of Clarke and Harrington can be placed in perspective by the efforts of their Irish predecessors in this, the world's greatest championship. From the time that Michael Moran finished third behind J H Taylor at Hoylake in 1913, the championship was won by Fred Daly in 1947; Daly (1948), Harry Bradshaw (1949) and

Christy O'Connor Snr (1965), all finished second; Daly (1950 and

1952), O'Connor Snr (1958 and 1961) and O'Connor Jnr (1985) finished third; and Daly (1951), Des Smyth (1982) and David Feherty (1994)

finished fourth. Prior to Harrington, Eamonn Darcy had finished fifth at Royal Birkdale in 1991.

Meanwhile, in winning the Open, Justin Leonard confirmed the rich promise which we saw at Interlachen in August 1993, when he was an extremely able number one on the US Walker Cup team. Any doubts were emphatically removed by the quality of his singles performances, notably a 4 and 3 opening day win over Raymond Burns.

Aged 21 at that time, he was still studying business at university in Texas where, three months prior to the Walker Cup, he became the first player in nearly 60 years to win three consecutive Southwest

Athletic Conference titles. Born in Dallas, he was the only amateur to make the cut in the 1993 US Open and he won the South

Amateur by the crushing margin of nine strokes. The importance he places on these amateur achievements was evident in his victory speech when he made a special point of highlighting the achievement of Scotland's Barclay Howard.

In considering Leonard's victory, I can't resist resurrecting a statistic which I feel is fascinating, if not revealing in the recent history of the British Open. And it is hard to ignore when one considers the fortunes of the European pair, Jesper Parnevik and

Clarke, and their American rival as the championship reached a climactic stage.

The fact is that since Arnold Palmer revived American interest in the Open with his triumph at Birkdale in 1961, no player has won the championship without first having tasted victory on US soil. Not Tony

Jacklin, nor Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle nor Nick Faldo as European winners.

One would be tempted to suggest that it is necessary to beat the

Americans on their own patch to have the necessary confidence to beat them in the British Open. It's just a thought.

Another interesting point was made yesterday by Michael Bonallack, secretary of the Royal and Ancient, in reference to the pre-championship favourite. "Tiger Woods is a magnificent golfer who will win plenty of major titles," said Bonallack. "He also handles himself superbly well for someone his age, but I felt the mistake he made was in trying to attack the course too much downwind on the front nine on the opening day.

"All he did was get himself into trouble, rather than getting the advantage he would have had. And his problems at the eighth on

Sunday (where Woods carded a triple bogey six), should be a lesson to all modern golf designers who seem to think that par-three holes should be anything up to 250 yards. Here was the shortest championship hole (126 yards) we have in these islands causing wholesale havoc."

Meanwhile, neither Clarke nor Harrington will be in action in this week's £700,000 Dutch Open at Hilversum. The Irish challengers are: Rafferty, McGinley, Smyth, Burns and David Higgins.

Senior action is at Royal Portrush this week with the third successive staging there of the British Senior Open. South Africa's

John Bland, who is enjoying remarkable success in the US, is arguably the leading challenger for the title captured by Brian Barnes for the last two years.

But there are some fascinating names among the entries, such as

Gary Player, Bob Charles and Lee Elder. Christy O'Connor heads a strong Irish contingent which includes David Jones, Paul Leonard,

Hugh Jackson, Liam Higgins, Michael Murphy, Arnold O'Connor, Austin

Skerritt, Hugh Boyle and the New Mexico-based Joe McDermott.