Harrington and Clarke chip in for charity
While Harrington is taking on the not inconsiderable task of staging major clinics at City West on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in aid of his Charitable Foundation, Clarke returns to competitive action after a two-month break in the South African Open in Durban.
Both men are clearly conscious of how fortunate they have been in accumulating considerable wealth through their golfing exploits and are intent on giving back as much as can be reasonably expected through various charitable donations.
Harrington will donate every cent from the clinics on Thursday and Friday to his favourite causes, while all proceeds from Saturday will go to the Asian disaster fund. A few tickets are still available for Saturday.
Clarke, for his part, also intends to donate his prize cheque in South Africa to the tsunami appeal. As he puts it himself: “Golf has been put in perspective for me after what has happened at home and elsewhere and I would like nothing better than to hand over the winners prize of stg£86,000 to the Asian fund.”
While he accepts that “there is still some way to go” before his wife Heather is given the all clear in her battle with cancer, the signs are encouraging enough to allow the 36 year-old to return to the fairways for the first time since mid-November.
“Heather and I are astounded by the number of get well cards, texts and e-mails we have received since it became known she was ill,” said Clarke. “I am uncertain about my schedule after this week because I am determined not to miss any of her treatment sessions. As of now, I am hopeful of playing six tournaments in the States by the end of April and before the British Masters in mid-May. Everything, however, depends on how Heather is.”
The golfer ranked fourteenth in the world is sure to be very much on the rusty side when he tees it up at the magnificent Durban Country Club on Thursday, although he dusted the clubs off last week and performed sufficiently well “to take a few quid off David Howell at Queenwood where we are both members. I have also been doing a bit of clay pigeon shooting and brought my two boys Tyrone and Conor to Toy Story on Ice and dressed them luminously so that I wouldn’t lose them. I also brought them over to Ireland before Christmas to meet friends and relations and last week went over with Heather for the surprise 40th birthday party of one of our friends.”
Joining Clarke in South Africa are fellow Irishmen Gary Murphy and Tour School graduates Philip Walton and Stephen Browne although the only other Ryder Cup player in the field is David Howell.
Harrington, who has just returned from a holiday in Dubai, will spend a week in Barbados at the end of the month before beginning his preparations for the start of the new campaign in Malaysia on February 17-20.
Harrington is now ranked sixth in the world and is already wondering if there is any way of crashing the top three places, which are now more solidly than ever in the possession of Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els. Singh had to shoot a 65 in the final round of the Sony Open in Hawaii on Sunday to hold off Els, who closed with a course record 62 and still lost by a shot.
Woods didn’t play the Sony but performed well enough the previous week in the Mercedes Championship and towards the end of 2004 to underline that he is far from a spent force at the grand old age of 29. Nevertheless, he is now well behind Singh in the world rankings and holding onto second place ahead of Els by the slimmest of margins.
Although the South African Open is the first event on the European Tour this year, three tournaments counting on the 2005 order of merit have already been staged and won respectively by Welshman Stephen Dodd (China Open), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Hong Kong Open) and South Africa’s Chris Schwartzl (Dunhill championship).
Ken Schofield stood down as executive director of the Tour at the end of 2004 to be replaced by George O’Grady. Schofield, one of the most dedicated individuals and shrewdest negotiators any sport has been blessed with, will be missed but he has worked closely with O’Grady over the years and I will be surprised if it is anything but a seamless transition. with Ken still officially available to offer advice and guidance.
As good fortune would have it, O’Grady is today in the position of announcing that BMW are to replace Volvo as Tour sponsors, with a massive amount of money flowing into the Tour’s coffers as a consequence.
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