Out-of-form Clarke not about to panic

NO panic and no need to panic. That was the definitive message from Darren Clarke last night after he finished the American Express World Championship last but one of the 65 competitors.

To say the least, this was a very poor performance by a man seen as crucial to Europe's prospects in the Ryder Cup starting at The Belfry on Friday. Clarke was patient and philosophical at the finish, claiming: "I had a few good birdie chances early on and didn't take them. Then at the fourth I had 123 yards to the flag and hit a lovely little wedge which pitched four yards short of the flag and trickled into the hazard. I made bogey there. At the next, I flushed my drive off the tee, flushed my next with driver off the fairway on to 30 feet and three putts later I walk off with a par."

He claimed this wasn't maddening, only frustrating, although he says he can't put his finger on why his best finish since winning the English Open in June is 20th while 64th of 65 on an Irish course is somewhere close to humiliation. Given the importance of the week ahead, it is good to see he is not too despondent about it all and indeed has no worries of taking on the Americans on the back of this flop.

"My whole idea was to work hard this week and go with it next week," he said. "However, having shot the scores I have shot, it is a bit of a predicament whether to go out and spend more time on the range or just play. But I'm satisfied there isn't a whole lot to be done.

"Hopefully, the way I played here won't have any relevance to the way I play in the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup is completely match play so I don't see any reason why it should make any difference. You can win holes with bogeys, not that I intend to make too many of them, but you never know what to expect. I'm hitting the ball all right but I'm not getting any momentum at all.

whatever is happening for me is going the wrong way. "I hit five iron into the par three 14th today. It pitched just right of the green and bounced up almost into the TV stand with not that bad a shot. The only shot next was to try and chip it short of the green and let it trickle down. But my ball landed on a cable about half an inch wide, jumped up, went down and missed the hole, stopped about 15 feet away and then

decided to keep on going as I'm walking down and ended up 35 feet away.

"You can't account for things like that. I'm due a few breaks and hopefully they'll come next week. It will

probably be a relief to get into a team situation for a change but at the same time you've got to post the numbers.

"I'm confident that all the work I've done this week will pay off at The

Belfry. I'm swinging it fine but nothing's happening as you can see from my scores. Everybody goes through spells where either good or bad things

happen and I've just got to be patient and wait for things to turn around.

"Team spirit in the European team is like a 13th man. The two teams I've played on pulled unbelievably hard for each other. "The pairings are up to Sam (Torrance). He'll take a look and see how we're playing in practice. If Sam wants me to play five times then I'll be happy to do that. I just hope I can score a lot better than I did this week.

"The Ryder Cup is easy to enjoy when it gets to Sunday night. It's a tough week, there's a lot of golf, especially for those who play five times. We're always underdogs so there's no change."