Clarke: I’m at my wits’ end

IT isn’t always easy to feel sorry for a man who has made many millions of pounds from his sporting exploits at the age of 34 and is guaranteed to live in luxury for the rest of his life.

However, when he looks at you with the suggestion of a tear in his eye and admits: "I'm at my wits' end", you would need to have a heart of stone not to try to understand the anguish Darren Clarke is suffering. Money, after all, isn't everything in this world!

I felt something very much along those lines on Sunday evening having watched Clarke put himself through mental torture during the final round of the US Open at Olympia Fields, Chicago, and then listened to the despair in his voice as he attempted to describe just what had gone wrong in a closing round of 75 that left him floundering in 42nd position.

"I three-putted the 4th from 20 feet and four-putted the 12th from 15 feet and I missed everything else," Clarke groaned. "There was no carelessness, I tried on every one of those putts. I have no idea any more. I cannot compete in any golf tournament if I cannot capitalise on the greens. I've got no feel, I've got not nothing. Any birdies I made today, I knocked them stiff.

"Am I trying too hard? I don't know. Would talking to Bob Rotella (his sports psychologist) help? I've done that. Am I going to try to play my way through it or do something about it? I don't know."

The man was shattered. He genuinely didn't know where he was going from Chicago except to confirm that his next appearance will be in the Smurfit European Open in two weeks time at The K-Club which at least is a place of happy memories for him.

How quickly things have changed.

As recently as Thursday, he had started the US Open with a 69 having lived up to his pre-tournament intent of taking out the driver and attacking the course. He did to such effect that his friend and manager Chubby Chandler maintained Darren was "the best striker of a golf ball in the world".

Clarke does have problems and make no mistake about it. A priority has to be to maintain his status among the world's top 50 which ensures automatic entry into all the major championship and WGC world events such as the American Express and the NEC.

At the moment, he is reasonably comfortable in the mid-20s but as we have seen with Lee Westwood, now 246th having once been fourth, and Paul McGinley, currently well outside the top 100, the slippery slope is never too far away if you're not figuring regularly. In that respect, Clarke is without a tournament success for 12 full months. He won $25,002 dollars for a share of 42nd at Olympia Fields.

If Clarke is on a downer these days it's difficult in the extreme to know what to make of Colin Montgomerie who shared that lowly mark with the Ulster man. His mistrust of the media now seems to be reaching a stage of paranoia and he refused to come and speak to a number of newspapermen he has known for years after three of his four rounds. He pleaded "tiredness", even after a first day 69, but he is alienating people who have been very good to him in the past and it seems as if he doesn't give a damn.

"I won't be chasing after him again," said Mike Aitken, a much respected reporter with the Scotsman.

How fortunate, then, that golf writers in Ireland have a jewel in Padraig Harrington with whom to do their business. He is always available, always courteous, invariably co-operative and informative whether it's been a good day or a bad one. He remains a

wonderful ambassador for our country and the American fans have clearly taken him to their hearts as well.

Whether he will ever be good enough to win a major is, of course, another matter. He has made it his goal for 2003, believing that taking in two tournaments in the weeks immediately preceding the Masters and the US Open would acclimatise him perfectly for the two big events. It didn't work, although he finished second in the Tournament Players Championship before missing the cut in the Bell South Classic and then in the Masters itself. He had two successive 13th places before the US Open.

"Two things - I don't think it was a good idea coming over for the two weeks before the Open and also I've been overworking on my game over the past few months and I must admit I felt a bit tired here over the four days," he said.

"When you're not as sharp on the greens as you should be, that's a sure sign of fatigue. But I'm not too disappointed, I know I'm getting better, I know where I'm going and I leave here in a positive state of mind. Okay, I finished 10th but 20th, 10th, 5th, whatever, that's not what I want. The place I really want is first. Technically, I'm a better player than I was a year ago and this championship was a good experience and one I can learn from. My game is okay, I now have to work on the mental side."

Harrington actually backed into a share of 10th worth $124,936 and that was very satisfactory in itself. He has now had three top-10 finishes in the US Open and two in the Masters, further demonstration of the progress he feels he is making. But those who demand a Harrington major sooner rather than later will just have to be patient. Quite simply, they don't grow on trees and the opposition is of the highest standard as we readily saw with the quality of the scoring over the four days at Olympia Fields.

Harrington won't play again until the European Open but he'll have plenty of matters to occupy his time, including a move into his magnificent new home in Rathmichael in south county Dublin and helping wife Caroline to prepare for their first baby in mid-August. The birth is due for the day after the US PGA ends in Rochester, New York, and the present plan is that he will play there while missing out on the previous week's International on the US Tour while possibly taking in the NEC World Championship in Ohio once the baby has arrived.