Clarke the man to beat - if he can buy a putt

European Tour: Darren Clarke, one of the game's great contradictions, is overwhelming favourite to win this week's British Masters.

Clarke is a man who has mastered what for most is the hardest part of golf, the long game, but he cannot putt, a man who has the talent to win at the highest level but who has not done so at any level for 12 months, a man with an explosive temper who has the reputation of being a genial giant.

Despite all that, Clarke is only 8 to 1 to win the €350,000 first prize at Forest of Arden this week, with the late entry Colin Montgomerie, the 1998 winner and one of his playing partners, at 12s.

The odds reflect the record compiled by the Ulsterman over this course, on which he has been twice a winner and once fifth in the past three years.

Both Clarke's wins featured brilliant displays. In 2000, he came from behind with a last-round 65 to overtake Michael Campbell, and in 2002 he had the same score in the first round and led to the finish.

"I don't really know why I do well here," he said. "I just seem to see the shots easily and I know what I'm trying to do."

Of course most golfers know what they are trying to do, but they do not have the ability to smash the ball over 300 yards down the middle and then hit almost 70 per cent of the greens.

Many hackers, however, can putt about as well as the big man, who is in the top three of both the driving-distance and greens-in-regulation statistics and 113th in putting.

Clarke realises that he is not "capitalising" on the greens, believes that it will happen "sooner rather than later" and can see himself winning for a third time at the Forest.

But next week will be a different story. On Sunday evening at 7.0, along with Justin Rose, he will climb aboard a Falcon 900 at nearby Birmingham airport and fly off to Chicago for the US Open. As one of Europe's leading players, surely he can see himself winning there, too?

"I think I would need a very thick pair of glasses to see myself winning a US Open."

That is not quite as defeatist as it sounds. Clarke cited the fact that Europeans are totally unaccustomed to thick rough around greens and do not know the shot required to get out of it successfully.

"No European since Tony Jacklin (in 1970) has won a US Open," said Clarke, "and that's the only logical reason."

Last year's British Masters was held at Woburn, where it was won by Rose, who has a different attitude to Olympia Fields next week.

"Earlier in the year I looked at this as a date that didn't really suit me, but the way the course is set up, with firm greens and thick rough, it's decent preparation for the US Open.

"This is also a tournament that's very special to me. It's the one I won in front of my dad (who died of leukaemia three months later) and we have a photo in the house of all of us with the trophy. Happy memories. It's a happy part of the house."