Clarke faces world's best - in first round

For a country with a splendid matchplay tradition, Ireland has made remarkably little impact on the ultimate test in man-to-man combat. This could be attributed largely, however, to the fact that places in the World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth are extremely difficult to come by.

Darren Clarke, who goes into the draw today for this year's event which starts on Thursday, is in fact only the third Irish representative, following Christy O'Connor Snr and Ronan Rafferty. On his debut last year, Clarke lost in the opening round to Brad Faxon, but the likelihood is that he will be drawn against a fellow European on this occasion.

O'Connor's only appearance ended in an opening round defeat by Peter Thomson, which was especially disappointing because of his liking of the West Course. In fact he set a record, four-round aggregate of 274 there when winning the Daks Tournament in 1959.

Such was his supremacy that the target stood for 28 years, before being lowered to 270 by Bernhard Langer on his way to victory in the Volvo PGA Championship of 1987.

Three years after that, Rafferty set Wentworth alight with a stunning, 8 and 6 win over no less a figure than Seve Ballesteros. Rafferty remains the only Irish player to have got through to the second round, where he was beaten 5 and 4 by Ian Woosnam, who would capture the 1991 US Masters title seven months later.

Wentworth is widely acknowledged to be among the finest parkland stretches in these islands. When work began in 1923, it was one of the first developments in Britain to be based on the American country club idea, with other leisure activities complementing the primary attraction of golf.

It was designed by the celebrated English architect Harry S Colt, who will be familiar to enthusiasts in this country as the designer of Co Sligo, Royal Portrush, Royal Dublin, Dun Laoghaire and Clontarf, among others. Lying in a splendid stretch of sandy heathland to the south-west of London, the 1,750 acres proved to be superb golfing terrain.

Against this background, it is hardly surprising that it has produced a long list of worthy champions, including the current incumbent, Vijay Singh. The Fijian, who made a "major" breakthrough to win the USPGA Championship since his Wentworth success last October, is expected to be one of the top four seeds along with Tiger Woods, Mark O'Meara and Ernie Els.

This would leave the remaining eight - Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Clarke, Thomas Bjorn, Patrik Sjoland, Langer, Stuart Appleby and American Steve Stricker - involved in first-round matches on Thursday. It will be recalled that Stricker, who took Els all the way before losing a second-round match by one hole two years ago, was runnerup to Singh in the USPGA in Seattle two months ago.

Though the draw is supposed to be open, things still tend to fall neatly into place, as we discovered in the Alfred Dunhill Cup last week. Even the pretence of openness came somewhat unstuck when there were two Swedens and two Japans in the hat before the groupings were eventually sorted out.

In the event, it would be no surprise if Clarke were to be drawn against Westwood in the first round in a sort of rehearsal for their Order of Merit showdown with Montgomerie in the Volvo Masters at the end of the month.

Els, who won the World Matchplay on a record three successive occasions before losing to Singh in last year's final, is understandably upbeat about his prospects this week. Indeed South Africa's successful defence of the Alfred Dunhill Cup couldn't have been more timely, in view of the presence there of Woods and O'Meara.

"I didn't play my best at St Andrews but Wentworth is going to be totally different," said the South African, whose won the Bay Hill Invitational last March. "It's not links golf for a start. It's a tree-lined course I've always liked. So we'll wait and see. I don't want to think about it too much right now - I want to enjoy the Dunhill victory."

Els was, in fact, unbeaten in the World Matchplay until Singh ended a sparkling sequence on the last green of last year's final. And he expects Woods and O'Meara to be fired up, after the shock of their semi-final defeat by Spain last Sunday.

As it happens, Corey Pavin, who beat Nick Faldo in the 1993 final, is the last American winner of the title. And despite infrequent successes by such giants as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Hale Irwin, Americans have generally been outgunned at Wentworth.

But they tend to do rather well on their own patch, as David Duval proved by successfully defending the $1.8 million Michelob Championship at Kingsmill, Alabama, last Sunday. It stretched Duval's lead at the top of the money list to $700,000 clear of secondplaced Singh.

Duval has been so successful this season that with tournament earnings of $2,464,408 from 21 events he is actually picking up a staggering average of $117,352 per tournament. After beginning a three-event winning streak in the same event last year, Duval has now posted a seventh victory in his last 23 starts and his fourth this year.