Clarke relishing recent renaissance

A WEEK may be a long time in politics but for Darren Clarke the last seven days have been among the sweetest of his career despite his failure to win the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

Instead of heading home to Surrey on Sunday night and preparing to watch the 150th Open Championship on television, Clarke relaxed by watching the first half of the World Cup final before heading across Scotland to St Andrews to renew acquaintance with the Old Course and the historic competition.

A starting place in the 150th Open was his ‘consolation prize’ for running up to Italian Edoardo Molinari at the weekend. After winning the JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor and then performing so well at Loch Lomond, Clarke is relishing his appearance at St Andrews.