Pretty good 70 for Clarke

GOLF courses don’t come much tougher these days than Augusta National, especially in Masters week. So Darren Clarke has every reason to be satisfied with yesterday’s opening round of 70 that left him three off the early lead held by England’s Justin Rose.

Meanwhile, Pádraig Harrington didn't need to be unduly despondent at finishing on two over par 74.

As Harrington noted, there are still 54 holes to go and it certainly would be premature to start talking about the Par 3 jinx or anything of that nature! Clarke, for his part, made a stir as soon as he arrived at the golf course yesterday. His new slim line figure was clothed in a deep red trousers with vertical cream stripes finished off by snow white turn-ups with splits! The "ensemble" was completed by a matching visor and thankfully a white shirt. Arnold Palmer took it all in before finally sidling over and saying "gee, Darren, I had trousers like those 40 years ago." On making his way to the practice putting green, Davis Love 111 picked up his golf balls and strode up to the Ulsterman. "I'm moving over here so that I can get a better look", he quipped.

Playing partners Phil Mickelson and Shigeki Maruyama pretended they didn't know where to look with Mickelson admitting that "I roughed him up a bit."

In fairness, Clarke took all the slagging in good heart and didn't allow it to interfere with his golf, at least where the long game was concerned. He hit two nice shots to the first and rolled in the birdie putt. He scorned excellent chances at the long 2nd, where he missed from three feet; at the short 6th where he left his tee shot five feet from the cup; at the 7th where he was off line from nine feet and finally at the long 8th where he left a thirty foot eagle putt five feet short and missed the next.

The 11th was always one of the trickiest holes at Augusta and it has become even more testing since thirty pine trees were recently planted to the right of the fairway which in turn puts a greater premium on accuracy off the tee. The opening hole of the Amen Corner trio cost Clarke a stroke when he found the pond with an attempted recovery from the pine needles but he finished in style, reaching the long 13th and 15th with four and seven irons respectively and finally the 18th where his six iron approach spun back to seven feet. "I made very few mistakes, I played away from nearly all the flags, I was very patient and got a pretty fair score", said Clarke.

"The putter was very cold to say the least but it's Augusta and I'm two under and very pleased with that. I'm more pleased with the way I've hit it today than my score." Phil Mickelson, who double bogeyed the short 16th to close on level par, was impressed by the manner in which Clarke tackled the course, in some ways ruefully explaining their contrasting fortunes. He agreed that "Darren was very solid. He's a tremendous player who played well and was able to capitalise on 13 and 15 and get his birdies. He had one little wander at 11 when he knocked it in the water but salvaged bogey. That's what you need to do. His bad hole, he made a bogey; my bad hole, I made a double, and that was the difference."

Padraig Harrington tried not to be too disappointed at signing for a 74 but in truth it was just that. Only one birdie over a course where all the par fives were in reach is a poor return by any standards, the only gain coming at the short 12th where he punched an eight iron to four feet. He admitted "it was a struggle. It was always going to be tough out there but level par after 13 was pretty decent. Then I misclubbed at 14 and went long and took bogey. I also got into a bit of trouble at 17 so dropping two coming home was disappointing.

"I had been hanging in nicely up to then. It's a nice day for golf, the golf course is playing perfectly, the greens are relatively soft. I didn't drive it as well as I would have liked, some good, some not so good. It's a 74 and that's how I played."

Don't for one moment, however, imagine that Harrington is throwing in the towel. While acknowledging that he has ground to make up, he is intent on hitting the right sides of the tiers from now on unlike yesterday when likely looking approach shots "early on which on another course would have been close broke away left, right and short. I was just catching the wrong sides like at the 1st, 5th and 6th. I was playing conservatively after that and I suppose that's the nature of Augusta." All that and the fact that Clarke and Harrington had just finished their day's labours when Augusta was hit by a massive thunderstorm that caused the cessation of play shortly after 4pm local time.