Irish stars lapping up birdies and banquets
Canny manager Andrew (Chubby) Chandler not alone rented a house a couple of miles from the course and out of reach of the many traffic snarl-ups which threaten chaos for the 40,000 fans gathering in Minneapolis each day, but he also brought out his own cordon bleu chef, Paul Linaker, to ensure that the inner man was also satisfactorily looked after.
McGinley, of course, is the odd one out in the quartet. He is a trim, dapper 5 ft 7 inch, 12 stone ball of health.
But the statistics attribute a weight of 17 1/2 stone and six foot two inches to Clarke and are maybe a tad generous in the former figure.
Westwood clocks in at six foot and 15 stone. As for Chandler, let’s say he isn’t known as Chubby for nothing! Minnesota Fats? Well, a contender for sure.
As we strolled around the Hazeltine fairways yesterday with the players indulging in their first full practice session over the course, up came the topic of the private chef and the bill of fare the guys may expect between now and Sunday night.
And whether it can be of benefit in keeping the respective waist lines of the players somewhere within bounds.
“Paul is in between jobs with the Dorchester Hotel and the QE2 which he joins shortly”, explained Chandler. “He’s from Manchester and has come out here specially to cook for us just as he did at the US Open in New York in June,” Chandler explained.
“We had a four course dinner last night with pastas for the main course and we also had six different kinds of Hagen-Daz ice cream and, yes, there’s some left over. We’re having a Chinese banquet tonight. We’ll have a barbecue another night. When we get home at 4 o’clock this afternoon, he’ll make us a cup of tea, it’s nice, isn’t it. Anyway, there aren’t too many nice restaurants around so this arrangement suits us ideally.”
The arrangement gets a full vote of confidence from Westwood and Clarke. Indeed, Westwood mused: “If you weigh up the costs, it doesn’t cost any more than going to a restaurant. The cost of dinner for the four of us eating out would be in the region of 300 to 400 dollars.”
So Lee, we wondered, what’s your favourite main course? He thought a while: “You don’t get to 16 stone like me without liking everything. Everything. But my diet is working very well at present, I’ve lost more than a stone since the Open and when I’m not playing, I work out in the gym for an hour and a half most days, five or six sessions a week. It began with our housekeeper going to Weight Watchers and then my wife, Laura, went so it was left to me to make the effort as well.”
Clarke thought for a second: “A good Irish fry.” No one was even thinking that he fasted for the rest of the day. The reply was fairly predictable: “All sorts of stuff. There’s not a whole lot I don’t like as I’m sure you can surmise yourself.”
He was equally ambivalent about the progress of a diet that seemed to work outstandingly well for him around this time last year. Was he still on that regimen?
“Sort of,” he said. “I’m into the same kind of thing. Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I’m on the natural health stuff but just a few beers get in the way now and then.”
Afterwards, Clarke lingered on the walk between the 9th green and 10th tee to sign something like 60 or 70 autographs. Impressive. He’s in good form menatally and it is to be hoped his peace of mind rubs off on his golf game this week. And after that bit of lightheartedness, it was back to serious business for Clarke and Westwood and also partner Jose-Maria Olazabal, a man going through hard times once again with an errant driver. Butch Harmon, the guru to Tiger Woods, walked the front nine with the Spaniard but it hardly seemed to be going anywhere when Olazabal sliced his drive off the 9th tee on to the first fairway. He reached the green from there but you have to wonder for how long that kind of waywardness can continue.
Harmon chatted frequently to Clarke and Westwood but I’m assured by Chandler that neither is working with his players any longer and that they are back in harness with Pete Cowen, who in fact, walked the first four or five holes with them. And it was good, too, to see that everybody seemed happy with a course that came in for some memorable criticism when it hosted its first major, the 1970 US Open won by Britain’s Tony Jacklin.
“From what I’ve seen so far, it seems to be a fine course and it looks very fair,” said Clarke. “The rough is not like Bethpage for the US Open, you can get a lie and move it a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty yards. It seems to be a more enjoyable course to play thatn Bethpage. It’s a bit more like a US Tour course and I suppose you could have a lower winning total than would usually be the case with a major in the States. But the greens aren’t that hard yet and not as fast as they will be, so I imagine it will toughen up as the week goes by.
“My game is ok but it was the same old story last week and the same story I’ve been telling you about for weeks. I was very frustrated with my putting in Wales. I can’t put my finger on it. I’m just not scoring. It’s the putter a lot of the time and there are other times when I have a poor day and don’t play so well. The putter I have this week is fine and unlike some of the others in recent times is not in danger of decapitation. There are quite a few putters in the garage and in fact Graham McDowell came down and stayed with me the night after the Open and found one he liked the feel of and of course won with it in Sweden. He’s doing very well and I’m delighted for him.”
Fortunately, Darren was in one of his better, expansive moods yesterday and so I was able to put it to him candidly that he was now on the eve of his 34th birthday and wasn’t it about time he won a major championship having threatened many times in the past - but not, for whatever reason, in the PGA. He tied for 9th in 2000 but missed the cut in each of his three other appearances, most recently twelve months ago at Atlanta Athletic Club.
“It most certainly is time for me to strike,” he said with a deep sigh. “I don’t know, I’ve just got to keep on playing, keep on working and hope that something happens. The Open was the focus of my season but I can readjust my focus at this stage of the season. I’ve had a couple of nice weeks off down in the Algarve with Heather and the kids and indeed they’re still down there. Now I’m ready to roll and I’m hoping that something will click into place.”
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