Clarke ready to add a touch of continental flair

BY the end of this month Darren Clarke will have reached a milestone in his life as a touring professional. At 28, a South American appearance in the Argentine Center Open on March 27th-30th will mean he has competed in five continents.

Indeed, it is reflective of the broad nature of world golf these days that Clarke will, in fact, be playing on three continents this month. In the company of Paul McGinley, his travels began on Sunday night with a trip to the Malaysian Open, which starts in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

It will be Clarke's fourth appearance there, having finished fourth, second and third in the last three years.

The pair then return to Europe for the Portuguese Open and the Canaries Open, before Clarke "heads for Argentina, while McGinley plays in Madeira. "I'm realising a major ambition by doing this," Clarke said yesterday. "When I got an invitation to play there, I jumped at the chance.

He is following in the footsteps of fellow Ulsterman Ronan Rafferty, who made a winning trip to South America in 1982 when, little more than a year after turning professional, he captured the Venezuelan Open in Caracas. Clarke, after an Easter break, intends to return to the European Tour to continue his pursuit of a Ryder Cup place in earnest.

There will be six Irish challengers in this week's Moroccan Open at Golf Royal D'Agadir Rafferty, Padraig Harrington, Philip Walton, Raymond Burns, Christy O'Connor Jnr and John McHenry. And Harrington remains committed to his original plan of playing 10 successive events before taking a break at Easter.

Though Seve Ballesteros, the Ryder Cup skipper, expressed surprise in Dubai last week that the Dubliner was taking on such an apparently demanding schedule, the player himself is undaunted. "I don't feel under any pressure as far as stamina is concerned," he said, en route to London yesterday, preparatory to his departure for Morocco.

"My plan is to take three weeks off after Madeira, which means I will miss the Cannes Open (April 17th-20th)," he said. "Then I'll be ready to defend my Spanish Open title in Madrid the following week. Either way, I bet there'll be other guys playing more tournaments than me this year."

Des Smyth, now in his 24th season on tour, fully endorses Harrington's approach. "It was no trouble to any of us to do that sort of thing at his age," he said. "Mind you, I wouldn't do it now." After a fine performance in Dubai, where he was tied 25th, Smyth is taking this week off but will return to action in Portugal as the first of three tournaments in a row.

Successive events were far from the thoughts of Jose Maria Olazabal however, despite a remarkable performance which saw him shoot a nine under par aggregate of 279 for a share of 12th place in his come back tournament in Dubairnt indeed, it appears that the" effort was not without significant physical.

As to whether he would be returning to Augusta, where he was triumphant in 1994, the Spaniard said. "Obviously it would be nice to play the Masters again, but I have to take into consideration that the course is particularly killing. There is not a single hole that is flat, except the 16th, maybe. The rest are up and down. You get really tired on that course.

He went on "I didn't expect to do as well as I did in my first tournament back, but I don't feel as if I could play two weeks in a row. Not yet. In Dubai, I went into the physio van for treatment. But it was on my back, not my feet."

The indications are that his next appearance will be in the Portuguese Open next week, but nothing is certain. "I haven't entered yet," he said. "My plan is to see how I feel over the next two or three days after a good rest."

Meanwhile, comparisons between Nick Faldo and the legendary Ben Hogan will be enhanced by the Englishman's victory in the Los Angeles Open on Sunday with a 12 under par total of 272. The left to right configuration of the course made it ideally suited to Hogan's renowned power fade, and Faldo shapes his shots the same way.

After the great man had captured the 1948 US Open there with a record aggregate of 276, which stood for 19 years, Riviera was dubbed "Hogan's Alley". As it happened, the record was lowered by Jack Nicklaus in 1967, when he beat Arnold Palmer for the title at Baltusrol with 275.

"This is the sort of golf course I'm meant to win on," Faldo acknowledged, after a final round of 68 had given him a three stroke victory margin. It was his first win since last year's US Masters and his sixth career triumph on the US PGA Tour. "Every shot has to be positioned. You can reward yourself by keeping the ball under the hole."

Faldo became the first foreign born player to win the tournament since Taiwan's T C Chen in 1987. Craig Stadler, the 1996 Los Angeles champion, was second after finishing with a 70.

"I kept putting the ball under the hole and that allowed me to keep my score going by making birdies," added Faldo.

"It was supposed to be a criticism of me that I was mechanical and boring. Well, I'm glad to get back to that again. This week I've played as solid as I've ever played. To come out and swing the same from the first hole to the last hole was very satisfying."