Clarke picks positives from trauma of Troon '97

IT'S a sporting disaster that lives fresh in the memory.

Colm Smith, the then golf correspondent of the Irish Independent, and myself, chatted briefly with Darren Clarke as he made his way to the first tee to partner Jesper Parnevik in the last match of the 1997 Open Championship at Royal Troon. A few moments later, he all but drove the first green, Texas wedged it to a couple of feet before tapping in for the birdie that moved him within a stroke of the Swede at the top of the leaderboard.

We made our way down the second fairway in the excited belief that we were about to celebrate the first and only Irish victory in the British Open since another Ulsterman, Fred Daly, triumphed at Hoylake in 1947. That was until the news spread like wildfire that Clarke had shanked his three-iron tee shot out of bounds on to the nearby Troon beach. Not surprisingly, it knocked the steam out of him and in the end he had to sink an 18 foot putt for birdie on the final green to finish in a tie for second with Parnevik, two shots behind Justin Leonard, who closed with a magnificent 66 to claim the title.