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.