DARREN CLARKE has broken 70 only twice in his last 10 tournament rounds has dropped from third to fifth in the Ryder Cup standings and has official earnings of only £6,664 so far this year. But the 28 year old Ulsterman seemed with a care yesterday while pre ing for the Desert Classic.
If you're wondering whether I've damaged my Ryder Cup hopes, the answer is no, he said. "Admittedly much of that is down to the fact that four of the first five tournaments were won by non Europeans. But I'm now beginning to feel good about my game.
Clarke is unquestionably the leading Irish challenger for a place in the side to meet the US at Valderrama in September. And it is equally true that he happens to be a notoriously slow starter.
But things are about to change. Turning a 188 yard, five iron shot just sufficiently to hold in onto a left to right wind, he smiled at the purity of the strike. "I'm getting close," he said. "Something's going to happen within the next few weeks.
He is one of 10 Irish challengers in the field and the most consistent of them is Padraig Harrington. He reported no trouble yesterday from an injured left wrist, after shooting two under par in the 12 hole pro am.
"I'm really looking forward to playing with Colin Montgomerie for the first time," he said of a draw that also has him grouped with Bernhard Langer. I like the course, but I'm struggling a bit on the greens. And they re not going to get any easier by the weekend.
His problem has to do with an inconsistency of pace, which was one of the reasons why Nick Faldo abandoned the European Tour to compete full time in the US. "In our first four tournaments the greens were slow and last week in Johannesburg, they were fast," he said. "I'm finding it difficult to adapt."
Yet Langer described Harrington to me as having "one of the best short games of anybody on tour." That is praise indeed, coming from the winner of two US Masters titles. And the German added: "Having played with him, I would also rate him as one of the top young talents in Europe. I like his prospects".
Meanwhile, he is joined here by Ronan Rafferty, Clarke, Paul McGinley, Des Smyth, Philip Walton, Christy O'Connor Jnr, Eamonn Darcy, Raymond Burns and David Higgins.
Darcy, winner of this event in 1991, has had a highly productive putting lesson from Costantino Rocca since arriving here. "My set up was desperate, so it was no wonder I was hooking all my putts under pressure, he said. Now, I've become quietly optimistic about my chances this week."
His good friend, O'Connor Jnr, has less ambitious aspirations in his come back event after seven months' absence with a damaged left elbow. "It's painful and I've limited my practice to pitching and putting," he said. "But I'm happy to be playing."
. The parents of European Tour golfer David Carter are to be flown out to Dubai following his emergency brain surgery on the eve of the Desert Classic early yesterday.
The 24 year old from Chesterfield was laughing and joking in hospital, yesterday, but his last recollection of the events on Monday was of feeling ill at the Emirates Club, deciding not to practice and then going into the clubhouse to be sick.
The next he knew was waking up in hospital on a drip and with his head shaved.
Johannesburg born Carter, 33rd on last year's money list, had undergone an operation to remove fluid from his brain, a legacy, it is thought, from banging his head on a water slide in South Africa two weeks ago.
