Ultimately, it came down to a stark choice for Darren Clarke. After undergoing an MRI scan in London yesterday on his hamstring injury, the Ulsterman was given two scenarios: play in the Irish Open, and risk an entire summer of inactivity; don't play, undergo further intensive treatment, and be fit in time to play in next week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Even a risk taker on Who Wants To Be A Millionairewouldn't be tempted by that option, and the medical advice basically made up Clarke's mind for him. He was, albeit reluctantly, out of the €2.5 million tournament where he will be replaced in the field by Tiger Woods's buddy, Notah Begay III.
So it was, with Clarke's withdrawal, that the Irish Open, which starts at Adare Manor tomorrow, lost one of its star attractions. Forced by the consequences of the injury to reschedule much of his itinerary in an attempt to play the necessary number of tournaments on the US Tour and get into the FedEx Cup series of tournaments later in the year, the knock-on effect is Clarke won't play either in the Smurfit European Open at The K Club in July.
Although forced to withdraw from the Wachovia Championship and The Players in the past two weeks due to the hamstring strain he sustained with an innocent tackle from his six-year-old son Conor in a game of football last month, Clarke - who will be missing only his second Irish Open since he made his debut in 1991 - underwent treatment from former European Tour physio Jonathan Shrewsbury in a bid to be fit to play.
Shrewsbury now works with footballers at Chelsea and Reading and also rugby players at London Irish but, after surveying the results of the scan, advised Clarke another week of treatment is necessary.
As his manager Chubby Chandler observed at Adare yesterday, "If he played, he could do more damage and it could make it a three-month job instead of three weeks. Darren desperately wanted to play, which is why he left the decision so late. He even hit some balls on the range, but he can't turn properly and it is doing him in he can't play."
Chandler added: "He'd love to play. You don't think Lee Westwood winning on Sunday made him want to play even more in the Irish Open than he already wanted to play? His mindset is great, everything is great, except he's got a little twinge in his leg he didn't get seen to properly because he didn't realise what had happened . . . the specialists will tell you the only way to cure it is to rest and he hasn't rested."
Clarke's 15 previous appearances in the Irish Open have brought some close calls, most notably at Carton House last year when he lost out in the rain-delayed Monday finish to Thomas Bjorn, eventually finishing third. He was also runner-up to Colin Montgomerie at Fota Island in 2001.
The repercussions of the injury for Clarke don't simply relate to him having to withdraw from the Irish Open on top of pulling out of both the Wachovia and The Players in what should have been one of the busiest runs of the season for him. Now, he has decided to alter his US itinerary in order to play in the Buick Open in Michigan and the AT&T National at Congressional, weeks that clash with the French Open and the European Open respectively on the European Tour.
This decision by Clarke to change his schedule has been forced on him by the injury and is being made in an attempt to get into the field for the Barclays Classic at Westchester, the first of four events in the season-ending FedEx Cup on the US Tour. Clarke, whose principal sponsor is Barclays, who were supportive of him throughout his wife's illness and death last year, is languishing in 216th position on the FedEx Cup points table with only the top 144 making it into the final four events.
"Darren hasn't enough money on the PGA Tour to get into the Barclays tournament at Westchester and he has got to be seen to make an effort. The two tournaments he can play in, the only two extra, are the weeks of the French and the European Open before the kids break up from school. He's already missed Doral (the CA-WGC championship) and he's probably going to miss the US Open unless he qualifies and, other than that, he has only got the (British) Open, the Bridgestone and the US PGA to get enough money. So, doing it (missing the European Open) is forced on him," said Chandler.
