Bjorn won’t suffer British Open hangover, says Clarke

THOMAS BJORN goes into the US PGA with a ringing endorsement from his European colleague and close friend Darren Clarke.

Both men know what it is to release their grip on a British Open on the final day, but Clarke believes Thomas won’t suffer any hangover effects after his collapse coming down the Royal St Georges stretch last month.

“I think he will play very well this week. I think he can forget about St Georges. I spoke to him on the Sunday night and then he came around to the house for a cup of coffee on the Monday and he was fine, he was in great form.”

Bjorn for his part would prefer to consign that sunny Sunday to the past and move on. He will be allowed to, but just not yet and inevitably he was reacting last night to the latest raising of the subject.

“Everybody has been very supportive and that gives you a great feeling,” he said. “People felt for me after what happened and, while I was obviously very disappointed at the time, I feel I have put it behind me and don’t walk around every day thinking about it. I know my game has improved a lot over the last couple of months. I know I can win with the best and yeah, I know, a couple of loose shots at the wrong times on that Sunday cost me a major championship. But you can only go away from that and say, well, I learned a lot that week ”

Hardly surprisingly, the Dane regards this week “as a great opportunity to bounce back and play somegood golf on a difficult golf course with the best players in the world.”Bjorn, of course, will be a key figure in the European side when they defend the Ryder Cup against the Americans at Oakland Hills in 13 months time. The recently appointed captain, Bernhard Langer, is here this week with many people wondering if his new job will interfere with his preparations for the championship.

“It’s not difficult to focus on this week because the Ryder Cup seems a long time away”, he countered. “At this stage, we haven’t even started qualifying for our team so it still seems a little removed even though there’s a lot of interview requests and a lot of other things going on regarding the Ryder Cup. So, hopefully, I will be able to focus on what I have to do.”

Langer was less forthcoming on the identity of his vice-captain and stonewalled: “There’s lots of time because there’s nothing the vice-captain would have to do at this stage and probably not for another nine months. I might even choose someone with a chance to be on the team, so I’m going to wait as long as I can. As for the younger players, we need them and we do seem to have the talent in some of the guys like Ian Poulter, who has been having a very good year, Paul Casey, Fredrik Jacobson. You could name a bunch of others, I don’t want to leave anybody out. Let’s leave Ian Poulter’s hair style out of it too. I’m not going to tell guys what kind of earrings they can wear or what kind of hair style they should have. It’s important that every individual looks the way he feels most comfortable and confident and, if that’s Ian’s style, then continue. He’s doing well.”