Clarke ready to drive for show in US Open

DARREN CLARKE is the US Tour’s best driver of a golf ball this year. That is a fact, not an opinion.

And it is a fact the Irishman hopes to use to his advantage in this week’s US Open at Olympia Fields, near Chicago.

In seven appearances across the Atlantic so far this season Clarke has averaged 294.5 yards off the tee and has hit 71.1% of fairways.

World number one Tiger Woods is down in 38th place, being 35th in driving distance compared to Clarke’s 20th and a lowly 108th in accuracy compared to Clarke’s 24th.

World number two Ernie Els, meanwhile, is an impressive seventh in the long-hitting stakes but only 65th in fairways hit and that puts him seventh in the overall table Clarke leads.

This week will be the European Ryder Cup star’s eighth US Open, his best finish being 10th in the 1999 championship at Pinehurst won by the late Payne Stewart.

Coach Butch Harmon has spoken of Clarke’s need to pull in the reins on his power sometimes but that is not how the 34-year-old Dungannon man sees it.

“I’ve tried to play sensibly in the US Open in the past,” he said. “I want to go and be a bit more aggressive this time. I want to have a go. I’ve hit irons off the tee and it’s not worked for me. I might as well go and have some fun; finishing 30th or something is a waste of time. If I try this and it doesn’t come off and I’m coming home Friday night then at least I’ve gone out having a go.”

Told this was not exactly Harmon’s advice, Clarke smiled and replied: “I don’t listen to him all the time.”

What the two do agree on is that for any golfer, certainly a European, the US Open is the most challenging of the Majors.

Nobody from this side of the Atlantic has won since Tony Jacklin in 1970 and he was the first since Scottish-born Tommy Armour in 1927.

“It’s the most mentally demanding,” Clarke said. “I’d have to agree that is the part of the game I’ve struggled most with. It’s a continual battle.”

During the Christmas holiday last year, however, a five-page letter arrived from American sports psychologist Bob Rotella.

“There were lots of bits and pieces, but basically he reminded me that I’m not patient enough and that I should wait for things to happen on the course rather than force them.

"I’ve been down a couple of tunnels thinking there was light at the end of them when there wasn’t and hopefully that letter can give me a little bit extra. I want to get back to being in with a chance of a Major.”

There has been a marked reduction this season in the number of times Clarke has allowed his frustration to boil over but frustration there has still been because he has yet to put the finishing touches to all his good work tee to green. Or at least tee to fairway.

The US Tour statistics also show Clarke is ranked only 108th in greens in regulation and 103rd in putting. Both need to drastically improve.

“Yes, I’ve tried to handle setbacks better, but the whole point of the mental work is to reduce the number of shots rather than the number of outbursts. It hasn’t happened yet and that is frustrating.”

Clarke had his best putting round of the year, though, in a closing 66 at the British Masters yesterday and after finishing joint fourth flew off on a private jet to the States in good spirits.

“I’m due to have a run of holing some putts,” he said, “I had my eyes checked last year and there was no problem. I’d love to have something to blame, but there’s nothing.”