Clarke looks to continue revival

Darren Clarke will be hoping for his recent revival to continue and to avoid a repeat of last year's misfortune in the Austrian Open near Vienna this week.

Twelve months ago Clarke was in the midst of the worst slump of his career, missing halfway cuts with monotonous regularity on his way from 35th in the world at the start of the year to ending it outside the top 200.

It was a run not helped by extraordinary pieces of bad luck like the one he suffered at the Fontana Golf Club, when he stood in the middle of the 18th fairway on Friday afternoon needing just a par five to make his first halfway cut since early February.

But on a sweltering afternoon the Dungannon man was amazingly caught up in a passing squall which turned his approach shot from straightforward to treacherous, and the Ryder Cup star duly found the water which guards the front of the green to card a bogey six and make another early exit.

"It was a perfect four-iron when I got there but by the time I hit it (against the wind) I was jumping all over a three-iron off a downhill lie," Clarke recalled.

"That's why I pushed it a bit but I wasn't going to lay up to the left, I'm thinking I have to make birdie to make the cut."

A year on, Clarke arrives in Austria buoyed by finishing fourth in the Wales Open at Celtic Manor on Sunday, a result which lifted him to 104th in the world rankings.

The 39-year-old also won his first European Tour title for almost five years at the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai and is so determined to get back to his best and qualify for the Ryder Cup team that he skipped Monday's US Open qualifier at Walton Heath to concentrate on his European Tour performances.

Graeme McDowell, Gary Murphy and David Higgins complete the quartet of Irishmen competing in Austria this week.

Richard Green returns to defend the title he won in a play-off last year and in the process attempt to become only the second Australian after Greg Norman to win the same tournament in consecutive years.

Coincidentally, Green won his first European Tour title in a play-off with
Norman and Ian Woosnam in the 1997 Dubai Desert Classic, but had gone a decade without adding to that triumph before beating France's Jean-Francois Remesy on the first extra hole 12 months ago.

"I feel like I am in the prime of my career now and I always felt I would win again and get the monkey off my back," said Green.

"Now I am looking forward to going back to Austria and the Fontana Golf Club in particular to defend my title."

Fellow Australian Scott Strange, a wire-to-wire winner in Wales last week, is also taking part along with home favourite Markus Brier.