Clarke overcomes quadruple bogey eight to stay in the hunt

Darren Clarke kept his head after a nightmare quadruple bogey eight threatened to wreck his chances of another Open Championship win to lead the Irish challenge at sun-scorched Muirfield.

The 2011 champion put his nightmare season behind him and reeled off a hat-trick of birdies from the third to get to within three shots of the lead before taking three shots to escape after plugging his third shot under the lip of a greenside bunker at the sixth.

But despite eventually penciling in a quadruple bogey eight he didn’t let it cool his ambitions to win another Claret Jug and signed for a 71 that left him just four shots behind 49-year old leader Miguel Angel Jiménez on one-over par.