Dazed Darren deals with a dose of the bogeys ... and Southern blues
The dazed Clarke won't forget his startling run of bogeys and double bogeys in a closing 76 that handed Australia's Peter Lonard his first PGA Tour title.
"I cannot believe I've done what I've done," he admitted after an appalling final round cost him prize-money of more than a half million dollars and copious world ranking points. A share of second earned him $342,200 as against the winner's cheque for almost a million dollars and improved his ranking by a meagre one spot, 17 to 16.
Usually, there is a degree of sympathy for a player who collapses as Clarke did on this occasion. It will be readily recalled how Nick Faldo couldn't bring himself to celebrate his 1996 Masters win when he gobbled up Greg Norman having gone into the final round six shots behind.
On that occasion, though, Faldo exerted severe pressure on Norman with a magnificent final round of 67. No such circumstances obtained on Sunday with eventual winner Peter Lonard also very much at odds with his game. Accordingly, the feeling about is that Clarke was the architect of his own misfortune, a view with which he can hardly take exception.
After shooting two opening rounds of 65, the Ulster man found himself six shots ahead of Lonard. Saturday's 73 brought him back into the pack, one shot behind the Aussie, only for a dazzling burst of four birdies in the first five on Sunday to open up a four shot lead. Just as quickly, two bogeys and a double bogey cost him the lead.
Clarke produced another burst shortly after the turn to move two in front of Lonard before collapsing from there to the finish. He was fighting a hook all day and it duly cost him a double bogey at the 13th where he found an unplayable lie in a bunker with a wedge from the middle of the fairway. When level with Lonard playing the 72nd hole, he pulled his eight iron approach into a hazard and ran up his fourth double bogey of a day that promised much but ended in disaster.
Lonard shot a round of 75 (+4) to win by two. Clarke didn't even come second on his own, tying instead with Davis Love III, Billy Andrade and Jim Furyk having crashed from four under for the day after five to a five over 76 at the finish. Although shell-shocked and almost disbelieving, he still faced a media that took the traumatic circumstances into consideration and didn't give him a particularly hard time.
"The momentum was going everywhere", he said. "I got it back again until the 13th, the little par four around the corner. The wind was swirling around a little bit and I pulled a wedge up against the sleepers in the bunker, didn't get it out and ended up making double. I was probably a little bit greedy on 18 with the way I had been swinging all day, fighting going left and trying to take on the flag with an eight iron. That proved to be foolish."
It's impossible to miss Clarke on the golf course these days and the Harbour Town crowds couldn't get enough of him, never sure of what was coming next. A classic example was the chip shot from the back of the short 14th that looked certain to end up in the water until it somehow managed to stop inches short in a crack of wood. Surely, a fortuitous let-off of that nature would turn the momentum in his favour? "Not really, I had hit bad shots before that and it was just another one, it didn't make any difference", Clarke maintained.
"Things happen out here that you don't expect. You couldn't print what was going through my mind walking up the 18th fairway. My swing got progressively worse, there was no real point where I could say it went. I hit some pure shots but around this golf course, as tight as it is, it's pretty tough standing on the tees with not much confidence."
Even though Clarke has won ten European Tour events and three more worldwide, he hasn't always found it easy to close out an event. The classic case was the 1999 Smurfit European Open at The K-Club when he famously shot 60 in the second round before a 66 in the third opened up a seven shot lead over Lee Westwood. However, he slumped to a 75, Westwood shot 65 and beat his friend by three clear strokes. To his credit, Clarke came back from that debacle to capture the European title in 2001 and become the first Irishmen to capture a European Tour event on home soil in nineteen years. He bounced back then. Can he do so again now? It won't be easy he has a first opportunity this week at the Houston Open given the far more important matter of his wife, Heather's illness.
Darren and manager Chubby Chandler have put together his schedule for the remainder of the season it includes the Nissan Irish Open at Carton House on May 19-22 but not the European Open from June 30 to July 3 but everything depends on how things are progressing at home.
Much the same applies to Padraig Harrington who misses out on Houston before hopefully resuming in New Orleans on April 28 and the Wachovia Championship a week later.
As Clarke made his way due south from Hilton Head, he will have pondered on a strategy that let him down ever so badly when the serious questions were asked.
Why he went chasing flags when in a commanding position on Sunday and up against an opponent who himself was clearly feeling the pressure, only Darren himself can answer.
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