Darren Clarke

The last time Darren Clarke had got himself into shape personal tragedy in the form of his wife’s death to cancer meant that he was unable to put his new look into telling practice on the golf course.

Two and a half years on from that very public trauma the popular Northern Irishman suffered, and after the tears at the emotional Ryder Cup at the K Club which belonged to Clarke as Europe stormed to victory, he is back in shape again, and this time vows to make the most of it at a time when the golf world believes the best the 40-year-old can offer is now in the past.

“Everyone knows I’m partial to a pint of Guinness or three, and I look back over a career and wonder if my lack of discipline in terms of my shape and fitness cost me tournament wins when I was younger,” the 40-year-old admits.

“That’s why I decided three years’ ago to get fit before it was too late but my wife, Heather, started to go downhill and I didn’t reap the benefits of my new-found fitness for very obvious reasons.

“Time has passed a bit since the really dark days in 2006 and I appreciate I’m not getting any younger. I believe there’s a good five or six years left in me at the top but for me to compete with the rest of the best, nearly all of whom are now younger than me, I’ve got to do the right thing. I’ve got a gym at home and I’ve been using all over the winter, as well as abstaining from alcohol for a month. I can give anyone a good game right now, but to do it on a more regular basis I’ve got start looking after myself.”

The new-look Clarke is clear for all to see, but it is not just in his waistline that the man who enjoyed finishing runner up three times on the European Tour money list, and to Zara Phillips in the 2006 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, is a different man.

You can see it in his eyes, where an excitement has replaced the dead, dull expression of recent times. “Look, I’m not the only one to have suffered from the trauma my family did with Heather’s passing,” he explains. “The problem was that it was all played out in a public scenario. By nature being a professional golfer requires a fair bit of selfishness but I had to become an all-encompassing father for my two boys and the golf had to give.

“Basically the last four years have been put on hold in terms of my career, and now that things are a great deal more settled at home and in my own life, I can start thinking about getting back to being competitive much more. As far as I’m concerned I have unfinished business in golf.”
During his suffering people may have forgotten just how successful Clarke had been as a golfer, but with his failure to make Nick Faldo’s Ryder Cup team last year, his chances of returning to the top have been written off by many in the sport.

Not Clarke, though. “People are entitled to their opinions,” he says. “But it’s how I think and how I perform. For all my success I’m disappointed with some aspects of my career. I’ve never won a major for starters, although I’ve had a few chances in my time to do so. Maybe the problem was that I never struggled in the early part of my career. It all came too easily to me. I won my tour card at the first attempt and have never lost it, but I’m still motivated to win a major before it’s too late.”

Motivated, too, by the Ryder Cup. After five successive appearances and only one defeat at Brookline, Clarke had forged a formidable partnership with his long-term friend, Lee Westwood, but captain Faldo decided against selecting him as a wild card and Clarke could only watch proceedings unfold from across the Pond.

“Watching the Ryder Cup was very tough for me, especially as I thought I’d done enough to merit being in the team,” he explains. “I found it hard watching them lose because I know all the boys and I’m used to being on a winning European team. The Americans deserved it because they played much more like a team than before, and they holed all the big putts.

“It won’t be easy next year, either, because their captain, Corey Pavin, will be really pumped up. But I’d dearly like to be part of the European team next time, and I’m sure I will be. The Ryder Cup has and always will be a part of me, and it will be extra special to win it back from the Americans.”�

Perhaps the biggest source of motivation, however, comes from his two boys, ten-year-old Tyrone and his seven-year-old brother, Conor, and the memory of last year when they walked up the eighteenth fairway with their father as he went on to win the KLM Open in Holland.
“That’s what motivates me more than anything else,” Clarke reveals. “I want to give the boys something to see. They missed most of my career because they were too young and then went through a horrible experience losing their Mum, but last year in Holland I was four shots up with one hole to play, and it meant I could make that final walk with my boys at my side. I can’t tell you how fantastic an experience that was for us all.”
Darren Clarke smiles at the memory, his face seemingly back to life and his game flooding back as well. “I’d really like to do that again with my boys,” he adds. “I want to make them proud of me.”��

Darren Clarke will be using the TaylorMade R9 this season, the world’s first fully adjustable driver. Go to www.taylormadegolf.com

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