Darren Clarke headed to Orlando yesterday for this week's Bay Hill Invitational, aware of the rich dividend he can reap from the success of his last American visit - to the Andersen Consulting at La Costa. For a start, three more tournament victories this season will bring a $1 million bonus from his sponsors, Dimension Data.
"We have been offered a lot of deals, including a couple of golf-course design options," said his manager, Andrew "Chubby" Chandler yesterday. The deal from his South African sponsors was sealed at the start of the year and specified four tournament victories, two of which may be outside Europe or the US. His first challenge in that context will be the Chunichi Crowns Tournament in Japan on April 27th to 30th.
In fact his schedule for the coming weeks is: Bay Hill Invitational, Players' Championship, week off, US Masters, Seve Ballesteros Trophy, week off, Chunichi Crowns.
As an interesting aside, Clarke got into the field at Bay Hill last year, only after the intervention of Lee Westwood who phoned Arnold Palmer on his friend's behalf. Padraig Harrington is also in a strong European entry for what is being viewed as part of the build-up to Augusta National on April 6th to 9th. The others are: Thomas Bjorn, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood. Sandy Lyle is seventh alternate.
The field will also include Dudley Hart, who shot a closing 65 to capture the Honda Classic at Coral Springs last Sunday. Meanwhile, Clarke has no immediate plans to move back to Portrush, despite having recently bought property there. "I bought a house with a bit of land but that's a long-term thing," he said. "At the moment, my career dictates where I live and there are huge advantages to having a home in Sunningdale, not least is the great arrangement I have with the Sunningdale club."
He went on: "I'm looking forward to getting back to the States and meeting up with Tiger (Woods) again, but I'll be doing my own thing on the practice ground. I now have a set, three-club routine which seems to be giving me the sort of consistency I've been after."
The routine involves placing one club in front of his feet to ensure proper alignment, another at right angles to it to indicate the correct ball position and another one, parallel to the first, to keep his backswing in plane.
