Clarke keeps his head over the putts

Golf: If, by his admission, Darren Clarke could putt as proficiently as he would like to, then he would be quite unbeatable on a golf course. As it is, he isn't doing too badly at all.

Yesterday, with the sort of stiff breeze whistling through the pines that demands creative shot-making, Clarke ignored whatever perceived inadequacies he has with the putter to retain the lead in the Volvo PGA Championship, firing a second round 69 for a midway total of nine-under-par 135.

"My patience is being severely tested," Clarke admitted, although his demeanour to those looking at him would indicate that there is no fear of dark clouds descending.

The source of his irritation is that yesterday he took 31 putts - one fewer than the previous day - and, yet, the comfort is that he is still in the role of frontrunner . . . and could also manage a barbed reference to his pursuers, one of whom is Colin Montgomerie. "At least I'm still a few shots ahead of the man we all have to beat," he remarked caustically.

That man to beat, or so the Scot himself would have us believe with rather a touch of arrogance, is Montgomerie. He is, in fact, four shots adrift of the sole leader.

Clarke's closest pursuer going into the weekend is his Ryder Cup colleague Niclas Fasth, who trails by a shot, while four players - Soren Hansen, Robert Rock, Kenneth Ferrie and Ian Woosnam - are two off the pace.

Lurking with some intent, however, are Ernie Els and Jose Maria Olazabal, among others, which makes Clarke's front-running quest a difficult one and means that this tournament, with €583,330 to the winner, is very much up for grabs.

Woosnam - "one of the great shapers of a golf ball on this tour," remarked Paul McGinley, who played alongside him yesterday - also yesterday added some fuel to the growing feeling of inevitability about the captaincy of the Ryder Cup team at the K Club in 2006 and the seeming likelihood that there may not be an Irish captain.

Although he has his name in the hat for the job in Detroit next year, and has officially applied for the position, Woosie admitted, "I'd rather see (Bernhard) Langer do it the next time, because I think he would be perfect in America, and I think I would do a good job in Ireland. That would be perfect really. I don't want to be passed over in three years time."

Which is not exactly what the home candidates for the job - Des Smyth, Christy O'Connor Jnr and Eamonn Darcy - really want to hear.

For his part, Clarke, who is now a member of the tour's players' committee, said: "I can't say anything, because that decision has to be made by the Ryder Cup committee. It is up to the tour's membership, and is out of my control."

Rather than focusing on conjecture, Clarke's task over the next two days is "to stay in the present," as his sports psychologist Bob Rotella has repeatedly told him.

For the first two days, Clarke has played the best golf tee-to-green and has, at least, been rewarded to some extent for that. He followed up his opening round 66 with a 69 that could so easily have been better, if only those infernal putts had dropped.

"I know I'm doing a lot of things right," said Clarke, "otherwise I would not be burning the edges and having putts coming back, horse-shoeing, as often. But I think if you ask anybody out there on the range this week, it is the way the game goes. If you get something good, then something else goes the other way. The game really is such a fine line."

His start yesterday was not what he would have wished, missing a three-foot par putt on the first hole.

Although he birdied the par five fourth - where his 15-footer for eagle hung on the lip and stubbornly refused to drop - Clarke dropped another shot on the seventh, where his approach trickled into a greenside trap and he had to play the shot with one foot out of the bunker.

That was to be his last mistake, however, and the run home collected four birdies - including two-putt birdies on each of the three par fives - as he resumed a lead that had earlier been taken by Fasth.

"I want to keep on playing the way I am," claimed Clarke, whose last win came in the English Open 11 months ago, "and hopefully if I do that then I will give myself a good chance to win the tournament.

"I think a win is coming," he added. "If it is to be this week or not, I don't know. But I think there is certainly one coming."

While Clarke continued to set the pace, if not quite managing to open a gap on those in pursuit, there was also a sign of some improved form from McGinley, who shot a 69 for five-under-par 139, while Ronan Rafferty - who shot a 72 for three-under-par - was the only other Irish player to survive the cut which fell at one-under 143.

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