Clarke keen to clinch Ryder return

HIS many friends and admirers will be delighted that Darren Clarke’s life is coming together on and off the golf course.

Since losing his wife, Heather, to breast cancer in August 2006, there have been periodic reports of new relationships in his life. The good news now, however, is that he says his romance with Northern Ireland model agency boss and former beauty queen Alison Campbell is “going well”.

They have been dating since early November and spent a few days together immediately after Christmas with Clarke’s sons Tyrone (11) and Connor (nine) at their home in Surrey. When family and work commitments allow, he gets over to Belfast as often as possible to play his part in a campaign by the Queens University Foundation Board to raise £85m (€96.4m) for cancer research.

“This campaign is very close to my heart,” says the 41 year-old Dungannon native. “It’s something I want to be involved with given that cancer has affected me and my family.

“I have my own foundation which works hard to support breast cancer awareness, but this is something different, a multi-million pound campaign to raise awareness in Northern Ireland and to help with research work.”

It is reasonable to assume that his peace of mind off the course is helping Clarke quite appreciably when it comes to re-establishing him as one of Europe’s finest golfers.

Since making the first of his five appearances in the Ryder Cup at Valderrama in 1997, the bi-annual clash with the Americans has always been high on his agenda and he has made no secret of his ambition to feature at Celtic Manor next October.

He was deprived of a sixth successive appearance at Valhalla two years ago when he captured both the BMW Asian Open and the KLM Dutch Open and yet failed to receive a “wild card” selection from then European captain Nick Faldo.

He had a poor – and winless – 2009, dropping out of the world’s top hundred. However, he re-dedicated himself to the game towards the latter months of the year and is now proving his intent by competing earlier than ever in the season.

He shot four tidy rounds in the Africa Open just over a week ago to finish on 12 under in a share of 28th. South African Charl Schwartzel ran away with that tournament as he did in the Joburg Open last weekend.

This time, though, Clarke closed with an eagle three by chipping in with a bladed wedge from the edge of the green to finish in a tie for second after rounds of 63, 69, 67 and 68 for a 17 under par aggregate. That effort earned him a cheque for €119,730 and moved him up to seventh in the Race to Dubai order of merit with a total of €128,273.

As for the Ryder Cup, he still has a mountain to climb. He is 19th in the European points list but is adversely affected by his current world ranking of 95th which prevents him entering majors or world championships.

However, that ranking is still an improvement of 20 spots after the Joburg Open runner-up finish and once again Clarke’s commitment is demonstrated by the fact he will tee it up for a third successive week in the €1.5m Abu Dhabi Championship on Thursday.

“I missed the Ryder Cup the last time when I thought I had a good chance of making it,” he said. “But I didn’t and I desperately want to get back on the team again. So that’s the idea behind the early start. I didn’t win last year because I didn’t play well and now I just need to get back in the winner’s circle as soon as I can.”

The Abu Dhabi tournament marks the first appearance of the season of Rory McIlroy, of whom so much is anticipated in 2010. It won’t be easy for the youngster to live up to the expectation and it will be fascinating to see how he copes. After Abu Dhabi, he takes a week off before defending the Dubai Desert Classic and after that he heads to the States for an eight-week run of tournaments.

Six other Irishmen, Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Michael Hoey and Gareth Maybin are also in the field for Abu Dhabi.

The event has attracted a high-class entry that includes five world top ten players in Lee Westwood (fourth), Henrik Stenson (seventh), Paul Casey (eighth), Geoff Ogilvy (ninth) and McIlroy (10th).

Pádraig Harrington, who remains sixth in the world rankings, doesn’t resume his tournament activity until the Northern Trust LA Open at Riviera on February 4-7.