Darren nails down legacy

IT’S very difficult to put into words the admiration I have for Darren Clarke after his stunning achievement in becoming the fifth Irish man to win a major championship yesterday at Royal St George’s.

I first met and played against Clarke in the West of Ireland in 1985 and even at the tender age of 16, you could see he possessed all the attributes necessary to become a very good professional golfer. That relationship continued on to the European Tour with ‘fourball Tuesdays’ when Clarke and Paul McGinley would take on myself and Eoghan O’Connell.

During that time, it was fantastic to observe (with some envy) at first hand his progression through the paid ranks from rookie to one of the main stalwarts of the European Tour, a position he has retained for much of the past couple of decades.