Clarke blames himself for blunder

Whatever happens to Darren Clarke in the rest of the United States PGA Championship one thing seems certain – there will be no repeat of what can only go down as an amazing blunder.

First round leader at Whistling Straits after a near-flawless 65, the Ulsterman fell out of top spot yesterday with a double-bogey seven at the long 11th at Whistling Straits.

It came, almost comically, after he took aim at the wrong television tower.

Clarke, who finished the day in joint third place with Ernie Els and American Briny Baird, one behind Vijay Singh and Justin Leonard, excused caddie Billy Foster of all blame and took it all himself.

“We had gone through it in practice and I had completely forgot about it,” said the Ryder Cup star, chasing his first major title.

“I was trying to punch a three-iron down in the fairway to play sensibly. I hit it absolutely perfect, looked at Billy and said ‘It’s perfect’.

“He said ‘Actually it’s a bit right’ and as we were walking down he said ’You do know which TV tower I was talking about, don’t you?’ I said ‘Yeah, the one on the right’ and he said ‘No, it was the one on the left.’ It was all my fault – I didn’t really pay that much attention.”

Clarke added a 71 to be eight under par at halfway and the good thing for him was that none of the top 13 players could improve on their first day scores.

World number three Singh added a 68 to his opening 67, but his hopes of going to the top of the world rankings for the first time tomorrow were ended when playing partner Tiger Woods birdied three of the six holes to survive the cut with one shot to spare.

Els can still end Woods’ record-equalling 331-week reign, however. He could do by finishing first or second, but first is all he is interested in after his near-misses at the first three majors of the season.

The South African lost by a shot to Phil Mickelson at the Masters, collapsed to a closing 80 in the US Open when in the last group on the last day with winner Retief Goosen and lost a four-hole play-off to Todd Hamilton in the Open at Troon last month.

On a course he described as “brutally tough – a par 77” when he first saw it last weekend, Clarke is delighted with his total so far and amazed at how many players are under par at this stage.

Woods moved up 60 spots with his 69, but is still only 44th at level par.

Clarke, second to Leonard in the 1997 Open at Troon, defends his NEC World Championship in Akron next week and beat Woods in the final of the World Match Play Championship in California four years ago.

He knows therefore how to win in America and while he has not done it in a major he should be encouraged by the fact that seven of the last eight winners of them had never done it before.

“I have been playing reasonably well for most of the year,” he commented. “I just have not been putting the scores together.

“I have hit 15 greens (in regulation) the first two days, but when I do miss them I have been dead so far. I just hope that does not continue.”

An American writer asked Clarke, world number 14, if he considered it a compliment being called the best player not to have won a major.

“I would love to have that,” he said. “It is definitely not derogatory, but I think there are probably a few other guys with a better claim. If you want to say it, though, that is fine with me.”

On his season so far Els commented: “I have never been scared of losing. I am here to do as well as I can and if I play to my ability I should have a chance.

“There is no different approach this week than any other major. You have got to deal with the pressure when you are in contention, but we practise for this. I live for this kind of moment in my career and I am trying to make it fun.”

He knows Singh and Leonard, major winners both, will be hard to budge, but the race is still wide open and Padraig Harrington is only four strokes back in joint seventh spot and England’s Luke Donald just one more behind.

Brian Davis (three under), Nick Faldo (two), Paul McGinley and Scott Drummond (one), David Howell (level), Colin Montgomerie and Ian Poulter (one over) all made the cut as well, but among those missing the cut were Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Justin Rose, Phillip Price, Graeme McDowell and Ian Woosnam.

Westwood bogeyed the last to miss by one on two over, but Casey’s exit was even more shocking. He was one under with one to play – the 449-yard ninth – and triple-bogeyed it.

Rose was level par with three to play, but double-bogeyed the short seventh and bogeyed the ninth. He was too annoyed to talk afterwards.

It was a huge blow to the 24-year-old’s hopes of getting back in the Ryder Cup reckoning just four months after he led the Masters for two days.

For Davis, Drummond, Howell and Poulter the target is not only to climb onto the leaderboard, but also to climb into the world’s top 50 so they can play next week’s penultimate counting event in the cup race, the multi-million pound NEC World Championship.

Howell and Poulter are eighth and ninth in the standings, but Swede Joakim Haeggman, in the 10th and last automatic spot, was another to miss the cut last night.

Captain Bernhard Langer made it on level par – and partnered Howell today.