Swing when you're winning

DARREN CLARKE has always been known for a fondness of the better things in life.

In the staid world of professional golf, his image as the car-loving, cigar-chomping Irishman who enjoyed a pint goes down a treat.

These days, Clarke is a changed man. He may still be considered a rebel in a world inhabited by robotic contenders and their bottle-blonde girlfriends, but the present Clarke is a swinging rebel with a cause.

The wide smile remains, wider now that ever. It's the other differences you notice. The leather jacket, the trimmed pounds, the styled hair. Clarke has finally realised how easy it is to step from the comfort zone of the outside world to the pressurised valve of world golf.

He is able to divorce the millionaire lifestyle of a playboy from his elusive search for his first major.

Something that wasn't thought possible in the past.

The Clarke you see here, in all his superstar chic, outside his fabulous home in Longcross, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, is not the same Clarke you will see leading Europe in this year's Ryder Cup.

Having always played hard, he has also decided to work hard at his game. A different Clarke was very noticeable at Augusta, he still loved his cars, his latest is a Merc CL 55, but the massive girth was gone. The hungover demeanour was gone. He was leaner and fitter.

American golf fans despaired. Their last chunky hope had gone the way of Tiger Woods and the fitness freaks.

Big D has gone down a storm in the States ever since the afternoon that country watched a larger-than-life Irishman beat the unbeatable in the World Matchplay Championships, collecting a cool million for his troubles.

They liked Clarke because he didn't care. The few stone his body shouldn't be carrying, the few beers after a round, the smile. It all showed a man at ease with the world.

Yes, he has discovered you can be at ease with the world with an assortment of cars and trikes and still be among the top golfers in the world.

The hiring of an Italian tailor at his Longcross home shows the Dungannon man still knows how to indulge, but he confines his indulgence in alcohol to the odd white spirit or two.

The change came at Augusta last year. Sharing top spot after the first afternoon, he found his body was physically unable to stand the pressures of 72 holes over three days in the rain-interrupted Masters. He simply wasn't fit enough. His lifestyle, or parts of it, had to be altered. "I don't have three cases of beer around my waist any more," Clarke said earlier this year. "If you look at all of the guys on top of the world ranking, they are all very fit and that is something that eventually got into my head. It takes a lot to push me sometimes, and this was reality, something I had to do, to try and improve."

He remains the millionaire superstar, the lover of fast cars, of living fast.

However, Darren Clarke, at the age of 35, is starting to realise the advantage of both playing hard and working hard.

It may mean his potential is eventually realised his first major and that will be a feeling that no car could give, no matter how fast Clarke pushes it.