The better Darren Clarke plays, the fewer cigars he smokes. Clarke went through only two stogies in the first round at the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Miyazaki, Japan, yesterday, which indicates he was on top of his game.

Indeed he was, at least with his putter, as he carded a five-under-par 66 in benign conditions at Phoenix Country Club to trail leaders Andrew Coltart and Ed Fryatt by two strokes.

Clarke made several long putts on the outward half to turn at five under, and although he added only one more birdie, along with a bogey, coming home, he had no complaints about his score.

"I had a bad bogey on 15 and lost a little momentum, but 66 is not too bad," he said. "It's a fair score given the way I hit it. I probably shouldn't have shot any more, or any less really.

"I got a good feel for the greens early on and I putted nicely, kept giving myself birdie chances."

Five of Clarke's six birdies came from outside 15 feet, and just one, at the ninth, was from the sort of short range where one expects to make it.

Intermittent light rain made for good scoring, although Clarke, among others, had trouble with mud on his ball on several occasions.

"The fairways were soft and the ball was picking up a lot of mud," he said. "I got caught three times, and I got a couple of flyers from the middle of the fairway."

Clarke, a regular visitor to this tournament, is here this week without his friend and rival Lee Westwood, who won the race for the European Order of Merit on Sunday.

As disappointing as it was to be beaten by Westwood, Clarke is trying to learn his lessons for next year. He believes his shot selection when in contention this year was sometimes suspect, too aggressive at times, and too conservative at others.

"I've got to be more patient than I have been," he said. "Part of the reason I finished second quite often was because I took on shots I shouldn't have."

Scotland's Coltart, who shot 64 to share the lead with Las Vegas-based British citizen Fryatt, thinks the right man won the Order of Merit.

"Lee won six times this year and probably deserved to win it," Coltart said.

Two years after the win which many people thought could turn him into a real European tour star, Cambridge's Russell Claydon finds himself battling for his future in Spain today.

Claydon, who has earned over £1.5million in his career, is back at the tour qualifying school at San Roque for the first time since he turned professional.