Clarke plots Major changes

DARREN CLARKE will tee off for the first time as a Major champion today, fully aware that the rest of his professional career — and the way he approaches it — is in need of a rethink.

Aside from dealing with the hullabaloo that will accompany his golfing homecoming at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club this afternoon when he gets his first round under way at the Irish Open presented by Discover Ireland 2011, 42-year-old Clarke also has deeper issues to deal with as he adjusts to the life of a Major champion and all that entails.

Instead of heading into the twilight of his career, he now has a new lease of life with five years of exemptions into the Masters, US Open and PGA Championships and a free pass into the British Open until his 60th birthday.

On the up side, lucrative tournaments have also returned to his schedule, such as next week’s World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, the forerunner of which he won in 2003 at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, while several new business and playing opportunities are coming across his manager Chubby Chandler’s desk on a daily basis since the Irishman lifted the Claret Jug.

So it is with some relief that it was a relatively short drive down from Portrush to Killarney that returned him to competitive golf this week for the start of the rest of his career.

“It’s just about started to sink in a little bit now,” Clarke said of his victory in Sandwich. “It’s great for the first tournament to come back and play in is the Irish Open.

“It would be wonderful to get off to a good start again after being Open champion by playing well this week. It is better that it’s here, the Irish Open.”

The Dungannon-born golfer acknowledged that his recent elevation in status would make it easy to take the foot off the accelerator for the rest of the season but a timely chat with sports psychologists Bob Rotella and Mike Finnigan had helped him stay focused.

“There most definitely is temptation,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve done nearly everything there is to do in the game. I’ve won a Major, albeit I’d like to win more if possible. I’ve played Ryder Cups; I’ve won big tournaments in America and around the world.

“I need to reassess and sit down and figure out some goals. I spoke to Bob Rotella yesterday, I spoke to Mike Finnigan; I was supposed to call him back last night. I was a bit tired, so I was in bed by half eight and I didn’t get a chance to speak to them. There was a lot about reassessing some goals and trying to work towards something else.”

That “something else” will probably not include returning to America and embracing the PGA Tour on a full-time basis for the first time since the middle of the last decade.

“Why? I’ve won over there a couple of times already. If it works into my schedule, then I’ll join. If it doesn’t, I won’t. I’m 42. I’ve been there and done it. I’ve played it over there and enjoyed it over there and had a great time over there and played pretty well over there. But to go and play a full-time schedule, to join, to get into the FedEx at the end of the year, I’ve got other things that I might want to do, as well. I might want to go fishing.”

That such opportunities have arrived now, of course, are down to Clarke’s breakthrough in the Majors at the 54th attempt and it is significant that it came following a return to his roots and a move to Portrush after 13 years in the London stockbroker belt.

“I probably am looking at it differently. I feel much more relaxed. I think it’s not going to make any difference as to my desire and determination to win tournaments but I’m much more relaxed and looking towards the future.

“Because that was the one that I’ve always strived towards winning, and fortunately I have done. And now, yes, I want to play well, and one of Rotella’s old sayings is, ‘try less and get more’; whereas I’ve done trying a lot and getting a little bit. So now I will try less and hopefully get a little bit more.”