Clarke back on Ryder trail

SEVERIANO BALLESTEROS is in town and so the Sun City clubhouse chat naturally turned to the Ryder Cup this week before the Dimension Data Pro Am, four days of amateurs playing with the professionals, for the first two days using both courses, the Gary Player and Lost City.

Ballesteros will be able to keep an eye on the two players he feels are "bankers" for his team, Ireland's Darren Clarke and the Dane Thomas Bjorn. Last year the European captain said at the Oki Pro Am in Madrid that Clarke and Bjorn were his exciting young players - like Tom Kite has his Tiger Woods.

Yesterday, though, it was not Clarke nor Bjorn whom Ballesteros was backing for a place at Valderrama, it was his compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal as the once ailing Spaniard plans his comeback at the Desert Classic in Dubai in three weeks time his rheumatoid arthritis apparently now under control.

"Jose Maria came to Pedrena to play golf with me a couple of weeks ago," revealed Ballesteros. "He is 99 per cent fit now and I am sure he is going to make the

Good news of Olazabal, but what of his own chances? "I have no idea how I am going to play this week," added Ballesteros. "How can I possibly have a clue how I will play when it's my first tournament?"

If is Clarke's third event and he has managed to keep his fourth place on the Cup points table. With 60,000 points on offer for first place here, he will be anxious not only to shine in front of the captain but to enhance his place in the table.

"Obviously it would be nice to play well when Seve's here," said Clarke, "but you want to play well every week, especially with the Importance of Ryder Cup points. I know I'm only a few steps away from securing my place and I want to do that as quickly as I can."

To that end, Clarke has returned to tour duty with a collection of putters and will choose the one he is most comfortable with today. "I've brought two or three out with me because I feel that it's on the greens where I've been losing ground," he maintained.

All of his collection are short putters and Eamonn Darcy and Raymond Burns will also feature orthodox putters in their bags today. Darcy was set to switch to a "broomhandle" after his disappointing weekend on the Glendower greens last week, but decided not to make such a drastic move after all.

"In the end I just couldn't switch," said Darcy. "I was very disappointed with the weekend last week - but I've decided to persevere with my new Odyssey. It worked well for two rounds and now I need it to work for all four."

Padraig Harrington is undecided whether to wear his spectacles or not today after practising satisfactorily without them. Paul McGinley, like Clarke, returns to tour duty after a short break.

Des Smyth, not quite recovered yet from an attack of food poisoning but ready to play, John McHenry, anxious to make the cut in his second event of 12 on a medical exemption, and David Higgins, keen to play four good rounds after slipping at the weekend last week, too, make up the Irish contingent.

Standing in the way of an Irish win - and for two weeks running Irishmen have led a tournament before fading at the weekend - are two Zimbabweans, last week's runner up Nick Price and the defending champion Mark McNulty, third last week.

While concentration will need to be at a high level this week, accuracy will come in handy at the Lost City short 13th hole green is protected by a crocodile pit and yesterday one enormous specimen lay snoozing with huge jaws open surrounded by golf balls!