Clarke looking to retain KLM title

Darren Clarke wasted little time today showing how much he wants to make a successful defence of the KLM Open in The Netherlands.

Winner by four on the same Kennemer course 12 months ago - many thought it would bring him a Ryder Cup wild card, but Nick Faldo did not agree - Clarke birdied two of his first three holes.

A pitch to six feet on the 447-yard 10th and then a chip to three feet at the long 12th put the Irishman, 41 last week, into the joint lead with Dubliner Paul McGinley, last year's runner-up, Welshman Bradley Dredge and Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara.

Surprisingly Clarke has not had a top 10 finish since his win and was particularly disappointed to miss the halfway cut in last week's US PGA Championship.

"I got an invite the week before, which was very kind of them, and that always makes it feel worse," he said.

"But I've not eased off my workload and I'm still as excited as ever about trying to play well and I'm looking for a particularly strong finish to the year."

Clarke has started working again with Belgian sports psychotherapist Jos Vanstiphout.

"It's a lack of confidence more than anything. You can't play as well as I did in practice last week and then play as poorly as I did on Thursday and Friday."

Ryder Cup qualifying starts in two weeks' time and that is one of the reasons the 2006 K Club hero is missing next week's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

He has never been a fan of the course on which the 2014 match will be staged and commented: "It's not that I think it's a poor course, it's just that it does not fit my eye.

"I've also had only two nights in my bed in the last eight weeks, so I need the rest."

Clarke remained two-under after 11, but a brief shower did not stop McGinley from grabbing four successive birdies from the 12th.