Clarke hands rivals the advantage

Darren Clarke's putter handed his order of merit rivals a huge advantage yesterday as it once again turned its back on its owner.

It was an advantage he could ill afford to hand to Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood, who look as though they are back to their best form.

A three-under-par 69 was little reward for a game which is head and shoulders above most of the field from tee to green, and Clarke will hope today that he strikes that putting streak which can carry him to the European number one spot.

After yesterday's further disappointment, when he had hoped a week off might have dispelled the jinx, Clarke is four behind joint leader Montgomerie, whose 65 in the morning was matched by US PGA Champion Vijay Singh and Englishman Van Phillips. Worryingly, as far as the rankings race in Europe is concerned for Clarke, top-placed Westwood seems to have returned to the form which won him three events in Europe and one in America before the British Open. He is only a stroke off the leading trio.

Montgomerie admitted his game tee to green is only "sevenish out of 10", while Clarke's performances over the past month have been well above that assessment. But while the Scot can keep recording 28 putts per round, as he did yesterday to combat the occasional errant hook, and Clarke needs 34 as he did in yesterday's opening round, the big Irishman is fighting an uneven battle.

Monty gave himself nine out of 10 for his putting. Clarke's putting form, or more correctly his putting result, was nothing like Montgomerie's assessment. His round contained five birdies - which should have been eight or nine - and two bogeys - which should have been none - if he had had any luck at all on the greens.

Clarke had sunk a pair of sixfooters on par fives to collect two birdies, but also missed a couple of makable chances. When a 12footer went to ground on his 10th hole, the first, it was no prelude to a storming finish though - anything but.

On the long fifth, he chipped astutely to four feet but missed the birdie putt. On the fourth he putted up to six feet from the edge and missed the putt to bogey. Clarke did slot in a five-footer then to birdie the next, but then the putter turned its back on him once more.

He smashed a drive some 350 yards on the seventh and nearly hit the green at the 577-yarder, only to three-putt from the fringe, missing another four-footer for birdie. At the next he was bunkered and again a four-footer failed to extricate him from bogey.

There was scant consolation from only his second putt of note as a 15-footer claimed the hole on the last.

Said a highly frustrated Clarke: "I had 34 putts altogether, 30 on the greens and four from the fringe.

"It's been the same old story for quite a while. Obviously I'm very disappointed with my putting. I had my chance today to go really well. I'm just not converting my good play into a score." His scoring was matched by Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington. McGinley suffered from a couple of bad lies on the last for bogey to push him out to a 69. Eamonn Darcy had a little run of bad luck late on, too, to shoot 72.

This course is as flat as a pancake but there are mountains to climb for the other two Irishmen today. Philip Walton and Raymond Burns handed in cards of 77. Out early, Montgomerie took advantage of the good conditions to make seven birdies on the Gut Larchenhof course and didn't drop a single shot.

The tone was set from his first hole (the 10th) when he played a superb seven-iron from the right hand rough to eight-feet and holed the putt for a birdie three.

Another chance slipped by on the next but six more birdies followed to leave the 35-year-old satisfied with his first day's work.

"That was okay," Montgomerie said. "It was fairly safe, and it's not right by any means, but I started to putt better and see the lines that I didn't at the start of the year."

Westwood, who is just £22,000 ahead of Montgomerie, birdied his first four holes before a bogey on the eighth dropped him back level with Clarke at the turn. But he picked up three more birdies.