Clarke hits the heights by hitting the greens

SO how exactly did Darren Clarke, ranked 111th in the world, climb from the depths of despair to become British Open champion?

Well, the results are in.

It certainly was not because of the accuracy of his driving. Of the 71 players who survived the halfway cut the 42-year-old Dungannon man ranked joint 56th.

Only 12 did worse than Clarke’s 23 fairways hit out of a possible 56 for an average of 41%, compared to Korean YE Yang’s table-topping 68%.

And, in the final round, when you would think it mattered most, there were only two players who did worse than Clarke’s four out of 14 — Japan’s Yuta Ikeda with three and Swede Henrik Stenson with just one.

In driving distance the 42-year-old averaged 311.8 yards — impressive, but on the bouncy links good enough to rank him only joint 17th.

American Dustin Johnson, joint runner-up with Phil Mickelson and left to curse going out of bounds at the long 14th on the last day, led the category with an average of 334.9 yards.

How about his putting then?

In that Clarke ranked “only” 31st, his 119 for the week being 10 more than France’s Raphael Jacquelin and Steve Stricker.

The British Open’s oldest champion since 1967 did well enough on the greens on the first two days, with 28 putts in his opening 68 and then just 26 when he repeated that score, but he had 34 on Saturday and 31 on Sunday.

The fact that he still scored 69 and 70 on those two days, however, points to the area which was the basis of his triumph — his approach play.

He could afford to take more putts because he was putting for birdie or eagle more than anybody in the field except Davis Love.

Clarke’s greens in regulation average was 71% — Love’s was a superb 75%, but he was last-but-one in putting with 130 over the week — and in the third round it reached a staggering 89%. That is 16 out of 18 and in what was, at times, awful weather.

These are the top five in each category and how Clarke fared against them:

Driving distance – 1 Dustin Johnson 334.9yds, 2 Bubba Watson 332.1, 3 Gary Woodland 325, 4 Bo Van Pelt 324.8, 5 Noh Seung-yul 322.3; 17 Clarke 311.8

Driving accuracy – 1 YE Yang 68%, 2 equal Davis Love and Trevor Immelman 63%, 4 equal Richard Green and Gregory Havret 61%; 56 Clarke 41%

Greens in regulation – 1 Davis Love 75%, 2 Clarke 71%, 3 Phil Mickelson 69%, 4 Lucas Glover 68%, 5 Richard Green 67%

Putts – 1= Raphael Jacquelin & Steve Stricker 109, 3 = Webb Simpson & Stewart Cink 111; 31 Clarke 119.