Clarke takes early lead in Madrid

Witnessing Simon Dyson stride to victory on Monday appeared to have rubbed off on Darren Clarke today as he took the early lead in the Madrid Masters at Centro Nacional.

The 40-year-old Ryder Cup star, twice a winner last season and disappointed not to have added to his tally this year, turned in five under par to be one ahead of Michael Hoey and English pair Danny Willett and Ross McGowan.

Clarke and Willett are 65th and 61st respectively on the European Tour money list and need to climb into the top 60 to claim places in the lucrative season-ending Dubai World Championship.

While Dyson shot 66 to win the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, playing partner Clarke’s 71 dropped him into a tie for seventh.

McGowan and Hoey were prominent last week as well. McGowan’s sixth-placed finish earned him over £100,000 (€108,000) while Hoey was heading for an even bigger cheque until he ran up a quintuple bogey nine on the 14th after blasting two drives over the out-of-bounds wall.

That nightmare dropped him to joint 19th and the Portuguese Open champion entered this week’s event 82nd on the Order of Merit.

Favourites Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald were among the later starters.

Garcia has not had a top-three finish all year and has dropped from second in the world – he even had a chance to topple Tiger Woods in March – to eighth.

Donald was the 54-hole leader at the Home of Golf and was on course for his first win in more than three-and-a-half years, but a 73 saw him drop back alongside Clarke.