Clarke building for the future

Darren Clarke already has no shortage of real estate. He owns property in London and Portrush, and has a cliff-top property under construction on a course he is designing in South Africa.

Now, as he attempts to juggle the demands of playing on both the European Tour and the US Tour, he is considering investing in a property in Florida.

In a departure from previous stays in America, Clarke has rented a house on the exclusive Isleworth estate in Orlando - home to among others Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara - for the weeks leading up to the US Masters next month.

"Where we'll buy, I am not quite sure," said Clarke, "but probably in that area."

Clarke's decision to rent a house in Isleworth will give him a base to prepare for the Bay Hill Invitational, the Players' Championship and the US Masters in the coming weeks, while also enabling him to bring over his family for an extended stay.

He is already a member of Isleworth Golf Club and, in fact, plans to represent them in a made-for-television match involving Isleworth and Lake Nona, comprising eight-man teams playing for the Tavistock Cup, sponsored by the property company, with $1.4 million in prize money later this month.

But there will be no Tiger Woods (who has other commitments) on the Isleworth team, which will feature the likes of Clarke, O'Meara, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby and Charles Howell. The Lake Nona team includes Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Nick Faldo and Retief Goosen.

For now, though, Clarke is focused on this week's Dubai Desert Classic on a course which hasn't been overly kind to him in the past. "I like this course and I haven't quite figured out why I haven't done well here before," he said yesterday. "But hopefully this week, with Ernie and Tiger here, I can give myself a chance."

Although he reached the semi-final of last week's matchplay, Clarke puts his game at only "six-and-a-half out of 10. It's not quite where I want it to be just yet, but I've been working very, very hard.

"I think the most promising thing from last week is the more I got under pressure, the better I managed to swing and the better it was. If I can do that down the stretch when I am under pressure, I think that's a good sign that things are coming back to the right way.

"One of the good things about last week is I knew I didn't have my game where I needed it to be, but I was able to grind out scores and grind out results. That says a lot to me about how far I have come, that I can still manage to compete without having my game. I'm not sure I would have been able to do that a year ago."

Clarke is one of seven Irish players in the field, along with Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley, Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie - "I've been playing a whole lot better than I have been scoring so far this season," he remarked - Gary Murphy and Graeme McDowell.

McDowell now feels comfortable with a swing restructured under the eye of Butch Harmon. "I haven't been to see Butch since last December, but I now feel it is time to start contending again in tournaments. I'm setting myself a target of a top-20 finish in Europe this season."