COLIN BYRNE CADDIES' ROLEThere is an often held expectation about how a top golfer should perform each week when he or she tees up in competition. Almost like the major brands we expect a certain quality and performance from names that we normally associate with success.

When Tiger Woods, the ultimate brand in professional golf, only finishes second, those very demanding amongst us scratch their heads and wonder where it all went wrong. The fact that top golfers compete and win on such a regular basis is a phenomenon that I, at close quarters to the action, cannot even comprehend.

There are so many things that can happen on the back nine of a golf tournament that are out of the player's control which make winning even more elusive than it already is. If you seriously contemplate winning it becomes even harder to reach that goal.

When you have been at the very top of the sport and through personal circumstances and a general decline in the level of your golf sees you slide down the greasy pole of success into the relative abyss of average performance, then winning can seem even more intangible than it did that first time before you really knew what failure was.

A couple of weeks ago in the brave new world of modern golf in Shanghai, while a 35-foot putt was traveling at high speed towards the hole on the 18th green at the Tomson Golf Club, the golfing gods decided to exercise their mystical magic once more as Darren Clarke was in search for redemption from the abyss of world golf.

He had played well all week long from tee to green, holed a few putts in the first three rounds and then missed everything on Sunday as you tend to do when you are a little on edge and you question if you belong in that position the rest of the golfing public assume you will languish in forever.

There have been plenty of great golfers who prematurely ended their careers in the past. They won majors and then disappeared off the face of the golfing world; Bill Rodgers, Ian Baker-Finch and David Duval amongst others who have never really reached their potential at the top.

So when the gradual decline occurs it is only the most determined and resilient who will continue to seemingly bash their head against the clubhouse wall in search of former glory.

Darren, as we all know, suffered the torture of watching his wife fight cancer for a couple of seasons. We (Retief Goosen) were drawn to play with him on the Saturday of the PGA Championship at Wentworth a few years back when he came to us on the range about 20 minutes before we were due to tee off to say he could not play as his wife was about to receive emergency surgery. It is a wonder he could continue to make cuts in events as he did when all this was going on in the background. The ultimate heroic performance came at the Ryder Cup shortly after Heather passed away when Darren not only agreed to play on the team but contributed greatly to the resounding European victory.

I suppose the reality of his new life sunk in after the Ryder Cup distraction and without hitting the ball that badly he lost the art of scoring, simply getting the ball in the hole from tough situations became very difficult for Darren.

He tumbled down the world rankings, his long-time and highly-regarded caddie, Billy Foster, decided, with Darrens consent, to move on. Darren tried out a few different bagmen in the interim and finally settled for another veteran Philip "Wobbly" Morby.

The consensus in China was that given his pursuers going into the final round, Clarke was in a very good position to capture his first win. This is what leading an event is all about, pressure and expectation.

So Darren went out in the final round and flushed his ball and flashed at his putts. He missed everything all day long until it came to the unlikely 35 footer heading towards the final hole in overdrive which somehow went in the hole to give the almost sheepish looking Northern Irishman his first significant victory for five years and his 16th in his professional career.

You are not supposed to hole those putts, least of all when you have missed the really short ones that you should make. The golfing gods decided it was time for Clarke to rejuvenate himself at 39 years of age, shake off the memory of the hard times and get back where he belongs, in contention.

We flew back to London on Monday last, Darren was sitting close to me and I looked around at him as we sipped our pre-dinner drinks and raised my glass to toast the most elusive victory of his long and successful career.

He looked back at me with that inimitable cheeky grin of his and gave a satisfied sigh as if the whole ordeal had sunk in and he was finally realising the enormity of it all.

Even as a great golfer and with the realistic or misguided expectation of those who expect great things on tap there is no telling when that tap will run dry for good.

With his usual strong work ethic, diligence and desire for success, culminating in the Chinese victory Clarke has moved into the outside lane ready to ease back to his rightful position in world golf.