Clarke stays calm to banish the demons

Time, of course, is a great healer; and Darren Clarke can only but agree. Yesterday, two years on from his lowest moment on a golf course, when his friend Lee Westwood snatched this title from his grasp, the 32-year-old Ulsterman found redemption . . . and, by the time that the glistening Smurfit European Open trophy was placed in his hands, he must have felt that a walk across the vast expanse of water that guards the 18th green would not have been beyond him.

This was a stunning victory, achieved by a man in total control of his game. A final round 66 for a 15-under-par aggregate of 273 meant he had three shots to spare over his closest pursuers - Padraig Harrington, Thomas Bjorn and Ian Woosnam - but, to everyone, the margin was even bigger than that as Clarke clutched impending victory to his chest as a young child would do with a favourite toy.

No one else was going to steal it away this time. "The best win of the lot," remarked Clarke.

"Even better than La Costa?" - where he fended off the Tiger to win the world matchplay last year - we queried.

"Yes. La Costa was good, fantastic. But to come along and win at home this way on this golf course gives me a high that I cannot quantify," replied Clarke. "To win at home is a huge thing. I've managed to win all over the world but had never managed to win in Ireland. It is a big plus for me."

His latest success was his third of the season, but his first on the European Tour as the previous wins were fashioned in South Africa and Japan. It was the eighth win of his career in Europe and, in becoming the first Irish player to win in Ireland since John O'Leary won the Irish Open in Portmarnock in 1982, he also ended a barren spell that had increasingly tormented home players.

In fact, one of the first people Clarke encountered in the locker-room after his winning round was O'Leary, who presented him with a pint.

"Cheers!" said O'Leary, and Clarke - forgetting about his protein rich diet that has seen him lose almost two stone in recent months - enjoyed the tipple as he savoured a win that earned him a winner's cheque for £436,096 (553,728) and put him to the top of the Ryder Cup qualifying table.

All through his round, Clarke had displayed a sense of calm that his caddie, Billy Foster, reckoned he hadn't seen since that win over Tiger Woods in La Costa.

"I thought he was going to win an hour before the final round the way he was swinging the club on the range," said Foster, adding: "It is great for him to bury the devil from two years ago."

That was the occasion when Clarke had a course record 60 in the second round and then included a hole-in-one on the way to a third round 66, before collapsing in the final round to a 75 that allowed Westwood to sneak in.

"From as low as I was two years a go, when Lee played great in the last round and I didn't, it is great to come along and play as well as I have. My game is working in the right direction, and I am delighted to have won here at home basically," he said.

Clarke's win - his first in Europe since his English Open success 13 months ago - has come after an intensive tournament schedule that has seen him play eight times in nine weeks.

However, in recent months, he has changed aspects of his preparations: physiotherapist John Newtown has had him doing stretching exercises to improve his flexibility; he has started working with mental coach Jos Vanstiphout, and he has also started a diet advised to him by Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance.

"Everything seems to have slotted into place because today I was as calm and focused on a course as I have ever been," he insisted.

His wife, Heather, was there by the 18th to share in her husband's win."It's a good 'un," she said. Darren loves the course, the whole place, and it just shows that if you are patient and wait, then it all comes right. Waiting is the hard part, but it is all worth it."

Indeed, an indication of how emotional the whole win was for Clarke is that, after sinking his par putt on the last to close out the tournament, he needed time to stand by greenside, cast his eyes out towards the fountain in the middle of the lake and simply compose himself. That's how much it all meant to him.