There are far bigger weeks coming up, but at the end of the season Darren Clarke hopes to look back on this one as the turning point in his fortunes. The 38-year-old is the best-known name at the Spanish Open in Madrid, but no longer the highest-ranked player.
Twelve months ago Clarke was ranked 20th in the world, at the start of this year he was 35th, but now he is down to 69th and that leaves defending champion Niclas Fasth as the only top-50 player in the field at the new Centro Nacional course.
Clarke, the toast of European golf last September with his remarkable unbeaten display at a Ryder Cup played a mere six weeks after his wife Heather lost her battle against breast cancer, said: "The reasons are obvious, but I didn't think it would take as long as this to get back to a normal life. I've got to be patient and I am sure the game will turn around."
In seven starts so far this season he has missed four halfway cuts, was knocked out in the first round of the Accenture world match play and has finished 20th and 27th in the other two.
One of his early exits was the Masters earlier this month after he slumped to an opening 83, but after a fortnight off he feels ready to go again and, with his two children back at school after the Easter break, is embarking on a five-week schedule taking in the Wachovia and Players Championships in America, then the Irish Open at Adare Manor in Limerick and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Clarke, armed with a tip from his former coach Pete Cowen, is in very determined mood: "I've not done five in a row for a very long time," he told reporters at the Centro Nacional course yesterday. "I've been working with Lead (coach David Leadbetter) a little bit and I got a tip from Pete on the range so I'm very hopeful about this week."
Fasth, currently 33rd in the rankings, defends the title he won at San Roque after a four-hole play-off with John Bickerton and is trying to become the first player to keep the trophy since Max Faulkner in 1953.
Spain's top two, Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal, are notable absentees from their national championship and the country's new star Pablo Martin - whose victory in the Portuguese Open on April 1st was the first by an amateur since the formation of the European Tour - is back at college in Oklahoma and yet to turn professional.
Like Clarke, Bradley Dredge is playing his first event since the US Masters - and what an eventful week that was for the Welshman. Making his debut at Augusta, Dredge was only three shots off the lead after both two and three rounds, but then came a closing 83 which dropped him all the way to 44th spot - 15 strokes behind winner Zach Johnson.
Dredge said: "I loved it there - it's the best course I've ever played. I didn't feel nervous the last day and thought I could shoot 68 and win, but it was just one of those days.
"Maybe I've got to feel more nervous because I've had that before when I've felt comfortable and not put in a good score. But the experience of the whole week is a massive incentive to get back there."
While Johnson is now exempt for life, Dredge still has to qualify for June's US Open, having seen his own world ranking slide from 50th on January 1st to 67th.
Clarke is one of eight Irish players in action in the Spanish Open where he is joined by Paul McGinley, the in-form Graeme McDowell, who has back-to-bacck top-10 finishes in China this past two weeks, Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy, David Higgins and Irish Amateur champion Rory McIlroy.
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