Clarke pays for morning struggle

THIS was one homecoming that Darren Clarke will not have relished.

The 42-year-old from Dungannon, who is so looking forward to completing a move back to Ireland with his two sons in the next few weeks, had an awful closing stretch of holes at Whistling Straits on Friday, when he returned to the course to complete his opening round at the US PGA Championship.

Clarke had been three under par after 13 holes of his fog-delayed first round when play was suspended due to darkness late on Thursday, a situation that left him one stroke off the overnight lead shared in the clubhouse by Bubba Watson and Francesco Molinari, with Ernie Els, Matt Kuchar and Nick Watney on the same mark but also yet to complete their rounds.

Clarke also had to sleep on the fact that when he returned to action yesterday morning he would be standing over a 30-foot par putt on the 14th green.

“The only hole I played badly was that last one there in the dark,” he had said on Thursday night, “and I have a 30 footer for par in the morning. That’s a big ask to hole that but overall pretty good.”

He had been rightly pleased with his day’s work, having parred the opening eight holes before sinking three birdies in a row around the turn, and the performance naturally brought comparisons with his opening round of 2004.

That was when the US PGA Championship visited the links-style course by the shores of Lake Michigan for the first time and Clarke, having called the then six-year-old Pete Dye creation “brutally difficult”, went out and shot an opening seven-under-par 65 to lead the tournament.

He would close with a 76 to finish in a tie for 13th, but that opening 65 was bettered by no-one and matched only by Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Six years on and it had been another sound start for Clarke, back in form after a runner-up finish at the Barclays Scottish Open and a tie for 12th in Killarney at the 3 Irish Open.

“I played nicely for the most part,” he said. “Played sensibly to the middle of the greens much of the time and attacked a bit with wedges in my hand.

“I have just done the right thing, struck it well and didn’t get myself into world of pain off the tee. It was alright.”

Yesterday morning’s play, however, was far from alright as Clarke slipped from three under to two over after coming home with bogey, bogey, bogey, double bogey, par for a 74. All of a sudden, the tough closing stretch had become brutally difficult again.

“It just wasn’t there,” Clarke said, although at the par-three 17th he also caught some bad luck when he found sand off the tee.

“I was in a deep heel mark in the bunker. It was one of those that was supposed to be raked and someone had walked through it and it wasn’t.

“Just one of those mistakes. I couldn’t get it anywhere and lucky to move it five yards. Then on to the green, two putts, double. Then rallied at the end for a par.”

Befitting the sagacity that comes with age and experience, Clarke was philosophical about both his misfortune and the round.

“I am playing well. I just had a bad morning, that goes without saying. That’s this golf course, if you make any poor shots you pay the penalty and that’s what I did.”

Clarke did not have time to wallow, though. With the tournament delayed for the second morning in a row by the dense fog rolling in off the great lake, the start of the second round had been delayed by four hours and 10 minutes. So he was sent straight back out to start again, and attempt another sort of homecoming.