Volvo PGA Championship golf: Clarke’s a video star

Darren Clarke has entered the video age in a bid to prevent any dips in his form becoming a real crisis.

Clarke goes into the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth tomorrow after receiving a trans-Atlantic visit from Claude Harmon, 32-year-old son of Tiger Woods’ coach Butch.

‘‘I made an emergency call to Butch last Friday to see what was going on,’’ said the Ulsterman, who until a remarkable recovery looked certain to miss the halfway cut in the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Germany.

‘‘Claude came over on Sunday and we had three hard days working together before he left.

‘‘He and Butch went through a lot of tapes of my swing before he came and now I have the software to do it myself on a camcorder, plug it into a laptop and send it.

‘‘I spend far too much money on gadgets, but this will be very useful.

‘‘You can’t afford any bad rounds nowadays. The standard has gone up so much.’’

Clarke has had wins in South Africa and Japan this year, but in six starts on the European tour so far has nothing better than his 24th place at the Masters last month.

He lies 58th on the Order of Merit, but is hoping the latest SOS to Harmon might produce the win which could take him all the way to second in the table.

Lee Westwood, meanwhile, is down in 143rd place on the money list and still looking to kick-start his season after finishes of 57th and 52nd the last two weeks.