Clarke seeks home comforts

It was not only Mark Roe and Thomas Bjorn who were looking at this week’s Nissan Irish Open at Portmarnock as a chance to put some Open misery at Sandwich behind them.

Darren Clarke was disgusted with how he performed in the biggest week of the year, but will be a happy man if he can now become the first home winner of his national title since John O’Leary in 1982.