Clarke confident ahead of Open

The majority of the field may have a distinct inferiority complex, but Darren Clarke today insisted he has the game to compete head-to-head with Tiger Woods in the Open at Muirfield.

Asked who would win if he was at his best and Woods was at his best, former European number one Colin Montgomerie replied without hesitation: ‘‘He wins.’’

Montgomerie is perhaps simply being honest, based on his failure to win a tournament when Woods has been in the field, the latest prime example coming in May when he lost a play-off to the world number one in Germany.

Yet Clarke clearly feels such an attitude, apparently quite common, is defeatist, and believes he can beat the Grand Slam-chasing American as he did with a stunning victory in the 36-hole final of the World Matchplay Championship in 2000.

‘‘If Monty wants to think that way it’s up to him,’’ the Ulsterman said.

‘‘If he wants to stand on the first tee and feel that way, good luck to him.

‘‘The guy (Woods) doesn’t win every tournament that he plays in. He wins the majority of them, fair enough, but he doesn’t win every one.

‘‘He is a fantastic player, probably one of the best the game has ever seen, but if you’re worrying about what Tiger is going to do every time, you’re wasting your time, beating your head against a brick wall.

‘‘You see a lot of guys getting caught up in watching what Tiger is doing, looking at the leaderboard all the time. You know his name is going to be up there. You know he is going to be the guy to beat, but a lot of guys are becoming so obsessed by it and it’s to their detriment.

‘‘If you don’t have enough confidence in your own ability to challenge him, there’s no point playing the game.

‘‘If I can play as well as I can, I can compete with Tiger. Whether or not that happens, I don’t know, but if I play my best I can compete with him on a links course. It’s the golf course you have to beat, not Tiger.’’

Clarke finished third last year, seventh in 2000 and second in 1997, and unsurprisingly sees the Open as his best chance to win a first Major championship.

‘‘The only expectation on my shoulders is from myself, and I’m 17 stone so there is a lot of weight on my shoulders,’’ he joked. ‘‘My two near-misses don’t bother me, they inspire me.

‘‘I think when it’s your turn to win a Major, you win a Major. I think guys have played better than me and I haven’t quite made the most of my chances. It’s a mixture of both.

‘‘It’s a question of putting myself in opportunities where I can contend in an Open. I’ve done that a couple of times, not quite as often as I would have liked.

‘‘We don’t always win when we have opportunities and I’ve given myself two opportunities in 11 attempts.

‘‘Certainly I was in there last year and didn’t give myself a chance. The putter was cold the whole week, I played really well all four days and paid the penalty for a shot that wasn’t bad on the 17th on Sunday.

‘‘Two behind I thought I had to make at least one birdie to give myself a chance. I thought it was a good shot when I hit it and it ended up in the bunker and I took a double.

‘‘I hit all the shots around that back nine last year on Sunday when I had to. Unfortunately it wasn’t good enough, I couldn’t roll the putts in to match the shots I had been hitting.’’

To that end, Clarke has been trying a wide variety of putters, including a brief and very unsuccessful flirtation with the ’belly’ putter being used by Montgomerie and Vijay Singh.

‘‘I’ve got about a dozen in the locker but one is favourite to go in the bag, an old one that I’ve putted well with on links greens in the past,’’ he added.

‘‘I’m not putting that badly, I’m just not holing anything.

‘‘I’m getting a lot of lip-outs and horseshoes and it’s a little bit frustrating. I’m trying to find a little bit of rhythm in my stroke. It’s gotten too short, I’ve been hitting it too much as opposed to stroking it.’’