Clarke has Coleman on the bag

Golf/British Masters: The new slimline Darren Clarke returns to European action today in the opening round of the British Masters ranked number three in the European Ryder Cup qualifying world list despite having played only four counting events on the money list and missing the cut in two.

His third-place finishes in the WGC Matchplay and the Hong Kong Open have given him another chance to be number one in Europe, and his bid would be boosted by the €395,000 first prize on offer at the Forest of Arden course this week.

With two third places and a sixth on the US Tour this year as well, Clarke has felt the benefit of his new diet and fitness regime, and the Dungannon man hopes to make it a hat-trick of wins on a course where he has won two English Opens.

Synchronising his swing to accommodate the weight loss is now his priority.

"I'm pretty happy where I am with my weight at the moment as long as I can keep on doing what I have been doing these past seven months," Clarke said yesterday.

"As far as the swing goes, I'm starting to feel a lot better, although I said that after the first round of the Masters and then went out and did what I did."

Clarke shot a 70 in the first round at Augusta but then missed the cut after a seven-over-par second round of 79.

"I'm persevering, and one day it's all going to fall into place," he added.

Clarke is playing with a new caddie, British doyen Pete Coleman who was Bernhard Langer's mainstay for two decades.

"I'm very excited about working with him and in the past couple of days his experience has already shown and his ability to club me," added Clarke. "I look for somebody to put the club in my hand."

Along with Clarke, a strong field includes last week's Italian Open winner Graeme McDowell, who is paired with Paul McGinley, who is making a surprisingly quick return to competition after recent surgery.

The Irish contingent is rounded off by Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane.

Clarke's great friend and ISM stablemate Lee Westwood has also shed over two stone by eating high-protein meat substitutes, and has enjoyed such a lift from his better diet and fitness that he is being sponsored by a well-known meat substitute company for two years.

After ending three years in the wilderness since his heady 2000 with two wins last year, Westwood, lying 64th in Europe and with only moderate performances on the US Tour, is aiming to prove he really is back.

"I saw the benefits Darren was getting and I've felt like I needed to do something for a long time," Westwood said.

"The great thing is, I've lost all this weight and on the (Reuters) statistics I'm (driving) 10-15 yards longer."

Westwood has also changed his caddie and is now using Howard Clark's Ryder Cup bagman John Graham.

Nick Faldo will fully appreciate what Colin Montgomerie is going through when they play together in today's opening round.

For Montgomerie it will be his first appearance since the announcement last week that he and his wife, Eimear, the parents of three young children, are separating and planning to divorce.

Former Ryder Cup partner Faldo, married three times, said yesterday: "All I can say is that I do know what it feels like."

He declined to make further comment for fear of it becoming a tabloid headline, but did add that he had found it "very difficult" to concentrate fully on golf when in the situation Montgomerie now confronts.

Faldo had a Ryder Cup to contend with during the break-up of his second marriage and yet still became a hero of the 1997 victory at Oak Hill.

Defending champion Greg Owen of Britain has had a cortisone injection in his spine to help relieve a trapped nerve caused by a disc fragment that has given him pain in his left leg, but has pronounced himself fit to play.

"I'm sleeping on the floor and taking eight painkillers a day, but hopefully I'll get all four rounds in," he said.

Meanwhile, on the European Challenge Tour, Stephen Browne, Michael Hoey and Colm Moriarty will be teeing it up in the Open di Puglia e Basilicata at the Riva dei Tessali and Metaponto Golf Club.