ALISON: MY LOVE FOR DARREN

THE woman who played a central role in helping British Open champion Darren Clarke overcome the tragic loss of his wife to cancer has spoken of her joy of being engaged to the golf legend.

“My life couldn’t be better at the minute,” she told the Irish Examiner in a rare interview.

“I’ve met the most wonderful man, who is kind, generous, loving, funny, cheeky — keeps me on my toes. And I think we are a good match for each other.”

The former Miss Northern Ireland met Clarke in 2009 after fellow Ulster man and European Tour colleague Graeme McDowell set them up on a blind date.

Thirteen months later, he went down on bended knee, producing a single rose and a rock of an engagement ring.

In an extensive interview carried out against the backdrop of the majestic Macgillycuddy Reeks, Alison Campbell, nee Smyth, revealed that the couple are the picture of contentment. “I am very happy that I’ve met Darren — I am going to spend the rest of my life with him. I don’t know when we’ll get married. We don’t have a date set, we don’t have a house built, but all those things will happen in time.”

It is clear, however, that Darren, has travelled a long and sometimes dark road to this point. In 2006, the gregarious and popular golfer was devastated when his wife, Heather, died after a five-year battle with breast cancer at a time when their sons, Tyrone and Conor, were just seven and five.

Alison, who is divorced and has two sons, Stuart, 22 and Philip 19, chooses her words carefully on this sensitive topic.

“His boys are 10 years younger than mine, so everything that they are going through, every stage in their lives, I’ve also seen. I know what boys are like, I know what they are into, what they are not into.”

Her experience as a mother seems to have deepened their relationship from an early stage.