Birthday boy Darren sporting a smile

BY his body language you shall know him! Darren Clarke, one of three Irish challengers in this week’s US PGA Championship at Oak Hill wears his heart on his sleeve like no other.

We all have a vivid picture of him dragging his enormous frame around the fairways of the world, shoulders slumped, face like thunder, clubs slamming into bag, hardly a word passing between himself and his caddy. That's Darren on his bad day.

And then there's the other guy who turns up with a smile on his face, at ease with the world and happy to trade repartee and fun with journalist friends who more often than not he regards as a damned nuisance!

Yesterday, in the sunshine of Oak Hill, was one of those latter days. Any reason why?

Well, it was a great day, his game was coming round and he celebrates his 35th birthday today.

"The course is extremely long and the rough is brutal," he related.

"We haven't had thick rough at any of the majors this year so they are obviously making up for it this week. I'll be using a lot of drivers.

"I have to because of the length of the course and if they don't make the fairways, then I'll struggle for par. My game is okay.

"Denver went very well. I worked very hard after the Irish Open, trying to shorten my swing. The first couple of days at Denver I played nicely. I practised there all day Sunday and again here on Monday with Butch (Harmon, his coach).

"He puts on this arm brace and it helps me get shorter in my swing. I put it on whenever I practice and I know exactly what I am trying to do."

He has no plans to mark his birthday by presenting himself with another flash car but we joked about how when he was half his present age, I first saw him on the putting green at Tramore, tall, thin and a peroxide blond.

"Who's that pretty boy?" I asked a northern colleague who promptly told me the kid was about to become a champion.

Well, not that week, for Clarke lost in the semi-final of the Irish Close to one J.P. Fitzgerald, who just happens nowadays to be his caddy and never misses a chance to remind his boss of that match in Tramore.

"I really got myself up for the British Open because it's the one I want to win more than any other," Darren said.

"Even when I finished fifth at The K-Club and second at Loch Lomond, I told you I wasn't hitting the ball very well.

"Then I got down to the Open and my swing wasn't there and the week after at Portmarnock I hadn't a clue where the ball was going.

"When my swing gets too long, I have to use my hands too much, and when I do that the timing has to be perfect and the more important the situation, the less you can rely on your hands.

"If you look at Ernie or Tiger or Davis, they're all sort of parallel and that's what I'm trying for. I've worked on it and I played lovely yesterday."

Although he has loved links golf from his earliest days, Clarke wasn't over enamoured with Royal St Georges, claiming that "you could hit a tee shot down the middle of the fairway and you wouldn't know whether to walk to the right or the left." Rochester is like chalk compared to St Georges' cheese and he likes it. He'd like to think he could win this week but insists: "To do that you've got to hit it on to every fairway and every green. My aim is to play as well as I can and give myself a chance to win. That's all I can say."

My parting shot was to point out that it was 'about time you gave us something to write about' to which he readily replied with a rueful grin: "I know that for sure."

Clarke's Chubby Chandler stablemate Paul McGinley is now 165th in the world having once been 37th and arrives here after a particularly poor spell which has seen him make the cut on the mark in seven of his last eight outings.

But, then, the portents for the Irish trio in the PGA are not very bright, given the following sequence of finishes: Harrington, mc (missed cut), 58 t (tied), mc, 17t; Clarke, mc, mc, 9th, mc, mc; McGinley, mc, 22t, mc.