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.

Asking him yesterday about his memories of that fateful day Clarke stressed: "Good ones, good ones. A little bit of a disappointment, obviously. But at the end of the day, I didn't play well enough to win the Open. And I went away with the memories of the last and a bit of a shocker on the third. A lot of people reported it was the second. But I got on the second tee on Saturday and thought - I didn't shank it here, so I knew it was the next tee. But, yeah, I have a lot of good memories from '97."

I quickly pointed out that it was the second where he had the shank but he insisted with a smile: "No, it was the third. At least, I think it was the third. I'm not quite as old as you yet, Charlie, but I'm catching up."

To which I replied: "Clearly you are because it WAS the second."

Less sure of himself this time, Darren was forced to acknowledge: "Really? I thought it was the third so it was a much worse shot than I thought."

Darren quickly returned to the good things about '97, of how there was a huge amount of Irish support and how the crowds were roaring and supporting him as much as they could. "Being off in the last group off at 3.15 was fantastic", he glowed. "It doesn't get any better than that - apart from winning. I want to get myself back up there again if I can."

Three years on, he finished 7th at St Andrews and then 12 months later, tied for 3rd at Lytham when once again he was in a very strong position coming down the stretch. Just as he let the chance slip by at Troon with the infamous shank at the 2nd, so, too, did he run up a double bogey at the 17th at Lytham to be one of those to give David Duval a free run to the line.

Thus, Clarke's Open record is respectable. Two top three finishes and another in the top ten. In his first Open, at Birkdale in 1991, he began with a 79 and improved by 12 the following day to make the cut and tie for 64th. Since then he's been missed cut, 39th, 38th, 31st, 11th, 2nd, misssed cut, 30th, 7th, 3rd, 37th and 59th. Not an easy graph to follow but it's a decent enough record and suggests he has the game to win an Open. Phil Mickelson certainly thinks he can: "Darren has the kind of ball flight trajectory so essential to win a British Open."

The real problem with Clarke is his bitterly disappointing form of recent weeks. Two missed cuts in Europe, six in the United States, says it all. As 1971 Troon champion Tom Weiskopf observed, "it's what you've been doing coming into the majors is what matters. You don't find your game in these tournaments. You have to be playing well and confident coming into these events."

Adhering to the belief that every cloud has a silver lining, Clarke is seeing positives at every turn. About the golf course itself, he says: "It's in fantastic shape. I had two practice rounds here on Saturday and Sunday and managed to spend a lot of time on the greens. They are pure. I have a lot of happy memories walking around, so hopefully I'll get a spark this week and get going. It's very fair. If you hit a tee shot down the middle of the fairway, 99% of the time it will stay there. It hasn't always been that way at the Open. I think the best player is going to win this week and that's not to take anything away from Ben Curtis last year. It's a stern test and the chances are the champion will be from the guys at the top of the world rankings."

Then there's his veteran caddy, Pete Coleman, the stalwart bagman for Bernhard Langer over 23 great years. They don't come more laid back than Pete and he does some job in trying to keep Darren calm and patient on the golf course. Clarke describes the Londoner as "fantastic. He knows the game inside and out, he's been around professional golf for a long, long time. He's caddied for a lot of great golfers. I'm drawing on his experience and what he has to say. And I think he's going to be a great help to me this week."

Yes, Darren, but how does he keep you calm?

"Pete runs as far away as he can", Clarke replies with that familiar self deprecatory grin. "No, he basically gives me the clubs and when I hit a good shot, he says good shot. What's the best way to put it ... because I have so much respect for him, I am calm most of the time on the golf course. With him all the time, but with myself, because of what he has done, what he's achieved. I have been very calm of late on the course."

Well, maybe. Anyway, one thing that can be truthfully said of the man is how well he looks. Indeed, in his current shape, he has all the appearance of the youngster I first met as a 17 year-old at the Irish Close Championship in Tramore ... slim, tall, upright and fearsomely powerful.

"I've lost 45 lbs, something like that, and it was pretty tough", he admits. "I was in the gym a lot. I'm quite happy where I'm at. I haven't made any technical changes because of the weight loss. But my timing has been out and it's getting tedious and monotonous, and it's why I've been so inconsistent. I've been hitting balls and working away. That's the only thing I can do, keep practising and hopefully it will turn around."

Clarke's manager Chubby Chandler believes missing the cut at Loch Lomond last week may turn out to be a blessing in disguise because it enabled him to get to Troon early.

He had his first practice round on Saturday and then took 4½ hours on the links on Sunday on his own to complete another 18, concentrating largely on his short game.

"Pete thinks I have the beating of this course but he thinks I have the beating of every course", he grinned. "But, yes, I like this golf course and I'm very excited about getting to the first tee on Thursday. I can't wait."