Clarke flies home to be with sick wife

DARREN CLARKE’S 2005 campaign is over. For the second time this year, he has felt obliged to withdraw at the halfway stage of a major tournament.

In May, he quit after 36 holes of the PGA Championship at Wentworth when his cancer-stricken wife, Heather, fell seriously ill. A brave girl and a fighter if ever there was one, she rallied well and less than a month ago felt fit enough to spend a week on holiday in San Tropez with Paul McGinley’s wife Alison.

However, fluid in her lungs is currently proving a major problem and Darren says he would be much happier to be by her side back in Surrey.

“Valderrama is not the course to be playing when your mind is elsewhere”, he explained before hopping on a private plane to London.

“Volvo are such great sponsors of our tour that I didn’t want to let them down by pulling out before their flagship event started, even though I knew I was going to struggle. I have tried over every shot, but unless your mind is totally on what you are doing here, the results can be professionally soul destroying. I have decided that I am better off at home.”

Clarke finished his second round with two bogeys and a double bogey for a round of 75 and a total of nine over 151 and is now unlikely to be seen on a competitive golf course for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the Irish challenge for honours now rests on the shoulders of Paul McGinley, who recovered from a disappointing 74 on Thursday with a 68 yesterday. He’s currently 12th and while winning is more or less out of the question, he is still capable of managing a top four or five finish.

“I threw five shots away on Thursday with a triple and double bogey and as I said then, I played much better than that score indicated”, he claimed. “I was in trouble straight away at the first when I missed the green and did well to escape with a bogey. But I was very solid after that and had a lot of chances. Those I took were at the par three 6th, where I hit a great six iron to four feet and made it; at the 8th, where I knocked in a twelve-footer; at the 10th with a seven footer and a good twenty footer dropped in at the 14th.”

Valderrama’s infamous 17th has a long and wicked history of disasters and Pádraig Harrington yesterday became this year’s most conspicuous victim.

Tiger Woods had an eight in the 1999 Amex Championship; Darren Clarke ran up an 11 last year; Gary Evans and Paul Casey shot ten and nine respectively in 2002 and now it’s was Harrington’s turn to take a quadruple bogey.

He was doing nicely enough on even par when he hooked his second shot from a fairway bunker into the little creek running along the left side of the fairway. Having dropped out, he appeared to chunk his next and the ball rolled back into the hazard having pitched on the front of the green. His next went over the back and a chip and two putts later he was signing for a nine and waving farewell to any prospects of a decent finish after a round of 74 for four over.

Graeme McDowell is still hopeful of a decent finish after shooting 71 for one over but it might have been a whole lot better given than he was three under after four holes.

Damien McGrane is six over after a 73 and Peter Lawrie is a stroke worse off having also shot 73.