Clarke hoping for fightback

Darren Clarke’s return to the European Tour this week has hardly been impressive – but he was determined to launch a fightback today after scraping into the latter stages of the SAA Open.

The Ulsterman is competing at the Royal Durban Country Club with the blessing of his unwell wife Heather and has pledged to donate his winnings to the tsunami victims in Asia.

He was well below his best during the opening two rounds and was in grave danger of not making the cut yesterday.

But with the utmost calm under pressure, Clarke showed a bit of his own magic in sneaking in under the cut with the final shot of his round.

Knowing his luck was almost up, Clarke sunk a 30-foot monster putt on the 18th hole for an eagle – and thereby just made the two-over cut for the final two rounds.

Clarke was set to begin his third round way behind leader Titch Moore, whose 70 gave him a two-round total of nine under par.

Clarke, who withdrew from the Nedbank Challenge to support his wife’s fight against cancer, was more than upbeat as he walked off the green last night.

“Oh, two more days of torture!” he joked as he was asked about making the cut. “On a serious note, this is a fantastic golf course – just not for my game. I am just not finding any shots.”

After his big putt had earned a warm ovation from the small but appreciative crowd, Clarke was in a fighting mood.

“I wasn’t even thinking about the putt. All I could think about was going home and how much I hate missing a cut,” he said.

“But as for the putt, I wish I could do that more often. I am really glad to stay, though. There is nothing worse than missing a cut. As for the rest of the tournament, the course just doesn’t like my game. But I am not giving up yet.”

Moore survived a horror start with three bogeys on the front nine before rattling off four birdies on the back nine to take the midway lead.

“I was trying to hang in there because I wasn’t playing that well,” said Moore.

“I actually did well to make pars at the first two holes before I bogeyed the third. But I knew there were always opportunities coming back down the final few holes, so I was just trying to hang in there.

“I was trying to get it back to even for the day, and to be two under with a nice finish was really good.”