Clarke is driven to distraction

DARREN CLARKE remained dead last in the 76-man field after a second round 74 as Pádraig Harrington continued to tread water in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in steamy Akron.

Playing alongside pal Tiger Woods, British Open champion Clarke complained bitterly about the quality of his putting and the waywardness of his driving over the first two days.

“I played poorly and got stuck underneath the ball the whole time,” said Clarke, who finished his day alone in 76th place on 11 over par.

“I just drove the ball poorly and putted poorly which is never good. I will try and figure it out over the next two days.

“I got way underneath it again and had no ball flight, no nothing. I will go and do a bit of work yet.”

If Clarke’s driving was bad — he hit just seven of 14 fairways — his putting was just as disappointing as he used the blade 32 times.

After Thursday’s 77, he headed to the range and putting green for nearly two hours and confessed: “Nothing would drop for me. But I can’t complain. I got all the breaks you could ask for two weeks ago (at Sandwich).”

His British Open win was still acting as an anaesthetic yesterday but he could not escape the fact that the 12-footer he holed for birdie at the par-three 12th was the longest putt he has holed in two days.

“I got one early but missed everything after that,” he said shortly after finishing with a double bogey at his final hole. “I think I had 34 putts again today [in reality it was 32] which doesn’t really help.”

For the record, he followed his early birdie at the 12th with bogeys at the 13th and 17th and then sandwiched two more bogeys at the fourth and fifth between a two-putt birdie at the par-five second and a spectacular birdie from just two-and-a-half feet at the sixth.

However, he then bogeyed the eighth and double bogeyed the ninth.

Still working without a coach after sacking Bob Torrance during the Irish Open, Harrington added a level-par-70 to his opening 71 to remain in the pack on one over par. Wearing a SpiderTech kinesio tape on his right arm to combat a niggling case of tennis elbow, the Dubliner turned in level par with bogeys at the first and ninth, erased by birdies at the sixth and eighth.

He birdied both the 10th and 11th from 22 feet to get into red figures for the tournament but bogeyed the 14th and 16th coming home.

“I holed some putts and putted well all the way through so I was happy with that,” he said after using the blade 27 times. “It is what it is. I can’t tell you any different. What can I say?

“If I was getting my school report it would say, ‘good but could do better’,” he said with a grin. “I have a couple more rounds to go to get ready for next week.”