Standing in the middle of the 18th fairway in the USPGA Championship at Valhalla yesterday, Darren Clarke had a breeze in his back and a shot of 242 yards to the elevated green. Sound course management prompted him to aim his five-wood shot some way left of the pin, to the safe part of the target.
As it happened, he blocked it into a bunker and then got up and down for a closing birdie and a round of 68. It was one of those little touches of luck which are critical to success in a major championship.
The score became all the more welcome for Clarke in view of a dismal record of two missed cuts in two appearances in this event - at Winged Foot in 1997 and at Medinah last year. In fact the USPGA in the only "major" in which Clarke has so far failed to achieve a top-10 finish.
"I'm really pleased, especially with the way I drove the ball," he said afterwards. "Good driving is the key to success on most Jack Nicklaus courses and it certainly pays dividends here." In fact he birdied the four par fives and the only two fairways he missed were the ninth, which he bogeyed, and the 12th, where he got up and down for par.
But there was disappointment for his Irish colleagues. Paul McGinley putted well on his debut in this event, but was penalised for some wayward striking from tee to green on the way to a 74. It included a dispiriting double-bogey six at the 12th where, in finessing a recovery from a greenside bunker, the ball came back into the sand.
Though reluctant to make excuses, Padraig Harrington was clearly affected by a painful neck problem on the way to a 75 in which he had to sink a nine-footer for par at the last, after duffing a greenside chip. "The injury has messed up my timing with the result that I hadn't the confidence to attack the flags," he said.
Harrington and McGinley both reached the turn in level par, but then spoiled their chances by dropping three strokes from the 10th to the 12th.
Clarke had reason to be grateful for a pre-round coaching session with Butch Harmon, before the American headed off to concentrate on his top client, Tiger Woods. "He noticed my right hip was rising on the backswing, causing me to come down steeply into the ball," he said.
Harmon had also studied the pin placements and from his knowledge of the course, advised Clarke to aim for the middle of every green. "So I often found myself hitting away from the pins," said the Tyroneman. "And the only two bogeys I had resulted from missing the green on the wrong side."
Clarke looked very impressive in difficult conditions for a player of his generous girth. He seemed to cope admirably with the heat, though his shirt was saturated with sweat, long before the end of the round.
His first birdie came at the 535-yard second which he reduced to a drive, five wood and two putts from 20 feet. A threewood second shot was necessary at the 597-yard seventh where he overshot the green but chipped back to a foot for another birdie.
Then came a bogey on the ninth, a snaking par four where he was in rough right off the tee and bunkered in two. But he recovered the stroke at the long 10th, again chipping and putting from off the back.
From there, he covered the remaining holes in two under par, hitting a 124-yard wedge dead at the 13th and a four-iron to 10 feet at the 217-yard 14th.
A pulled eight iron left of the 16th green, meant that he hit 15 of the 18 greens in regulation. And when a five-footer found the target at the last, he had used the blade 30 times.
Without mentioning the exploits of Woods, Clarke reckoned that he would need to maintain this level of scoring to have any chance of being in contention on Sunday. "It will mean getting the most out of the par fives, as I did today," he said.
