PADRAIG HARRINGTON made his name with victory in the Peugeot Spanish Open in Madrid last year. This week Darren Clarke can do the same, by taking advantage of a golden opportunity to end all speculation about his place in the European Ryder Cup team at Valderrama in September.
Clarke is just back from a three week trip to the Americas which saw him finish fifth in the Argentine Centre Open at Cordoba, then spend his first wedding anniversary with his wife, Heather, at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paolo. The journey concluded with a three-day visit to Disneyworld in Florida.
Today it is back to serious business when Clarke plays with Greg Norman and Jose-Maria Olazabal in the first round at the Jack Nicklaus-designed La Moraleja II course, where 18 of the top 20 contenders for Ryder honours this year are challenging for Harrington title.
Clarke arrives with a new set of custom-made MacGregor VIP irons and a new grip recommended by coach Peter Cowen. Clarke has weakened his left hand considerably in a bid to take the left side of the fairway out of play.
"It feels strange, but I have been hooking the ball too much lately," he said, and I need to get things right for this very important spell ahead of me". Clarke will be playing non-stop for the next nine weeks, and they could decide the shape of his season and his career. He will compete in next week's Italian Open, then the Benson and Hedges and English O en followed by his first appearance in the European section of the Andersen Consulting World matchplay Championship.
After that comes the Volvo PGA at Wentworth the Deutsche Bank Open in Hamburg, and the Compaq European Grand Prix at Slaley Hill, all events with big purses. Then he plays along with Harrington in the US Open at the Congressional club.
With, a total prize fund approaching £6 million in, that stretch, it is not hard to envisage a player of Clarke's calibre winning the £150,000 he needs to add to his current total of 201,379 Ryder Cup points to be sure of his debut against Tiger Woods and Co in September.
"If I do the business then my schedule and year will work itself out," said Clarke as he put the final touches to his preparation in the Spanish capital.
Harrington, who currently stands 16th in the Cup table with 121,600 points, has an almost equally hectic programme until his first US Open appearance. He will also be in Italy next week, then will take in the three English events before taking a week off, and heading for Northumberland prior to leaving for the US.
His partners for the opening two rounds here are Dane Thomas Bjorn, with whom he had such a thrilling struggle for the 1996 Rookie of the Year award, and the former Madrid caddie Santiago Luna.
They will be just ahead of Ryder Cup captain Seve Ballesteros whose latest coach is the man behind the sensational Tiger Woods. Butch Harmon (53), whose father won the 1948 Masters, has agreed to try to help Seve out of a slump that has seen his game descend to near terminal stages this season. In six tournaments the Spaniard has not got beyond the halfway stage.
"I have tried lots of coaches but none of them have been able to help me." Ballesteros said. It is like looking for a doctor who has the cure, just as Jose-Maria Olazabal did before he found the right man. So I have asked Butch to help me.
Harmon, who coached Norman for four years until they split last summer. said: "Seve was a great champion, and I believe I can make him great again. He has lots of wins left in him and I know he can do it."
Norman commented: "Butch gave me back my confidence when I was down in 1991, and I hope he can find the key to unlock Seve's game. Sometimes it is a mental thing as much as a physical one, and you have to search your soul to find it.
Norman is in Madrid for the first time in 15 years on a quid pro quo basis: Greg plays here, and Seve will play in Norman's Holden Classic in Sydney next February.
If the Australian finishes in the top 10, which seems likely, for he was joint second on his last trip to Europe in the Dubai Desert Classic eight weeks ago, he will regain the world number one spot from Tom Lehman.
Paul McGinley, fresh from his top 10 placing in the Cannes Open, Des Smyth, Eamonn Darcy, Ronan Rafferty, David Higgins and Raymond Burns complete the Irish line-up
. John McHenry makes his debut on the 1997 Challenge Tour in Portugal today hoping that a change of scene will mean a change of fortune.
The 33-year-old, who failed to regain his European Tour card at last November's qualifying, school after finishing 16th in the rankings, has a medical exemption for the first 15 events of the season.
But so far he has played only four tournaments and earned just over f2,000. So a change of luck on the Challenge Tour could be just what the doctor ordered.
McHenry is one of three Irishmen competing at the Montado club, situated in the Muscatel vineyards some 30 miles south of Lisbon. He is joined by Francis Howley and Martin Sludds.
. Fuzzy Zoeller withdrew from the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic yesterday, saying, he could not play golf again until talking with Masters champion Tiger Woods.
