McIlroy best placed to end Europe’s Grand Slam hoodoo

DARREN CLARKE has enjoyed something of a golfing honeymoon since his magnificent victory in the Open Championship at Royal St Georges in July.

In that period, he has played five tournaments, missing the cut in three, the Irish Open, the US PGA Championship and the Dunhill Masters as well as finishing 35th in the European Masters and 68th in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, an event that doesn’t have a cut.

Like any person who enjoys life, Clarke was always going to celebrate such a momentous victory. Nothing wrong with that but the time is now overdue where stringing a few noteworthy results together again is concerned.