Clarke still smarting over late collapse

Darren Clarke remained bitterly disappointed and suitably contrite yesterday over a late collapse against Sergio Garcia in the Alfred Dunhill Cup match with Spain at St Andrews last Saturday. But he insisted he had taken the correct option en route to a crippling double-bogey on the 17th.

Clarke was "somewhere in the south-west" of this country with his manager, Andrew Chandler, walking the site of a prospective golf-course development in the hope of winning the design contract. And he is playing a charity pro-am at Sunningdale today prior to returning for the Smurfit Irish Professional Championship at The Island, starting on Thursday.

"I'm still very annoyed with myself," he said. "Not only should I have beaten Sergio; I should have won the match comfortably. And no, I'm not pleased that Spain went on to win the trophy for the first time. It should have been us."

He went on: "I suppose my problems started on the 14th where I hit a bad second shot into Hell Bunker." As Jack Nicklaus discovered during the British Open of 1995, there is no front door out of hell and Clarke took the prudent option of coming out sideways on the way to a bogey six, rather than the 10 which the Bear carded.

The stroke was then recovered at the next, where a beautiful seven-iron approach was followed by a 10-foot birdie putt. "People were critical of the way I played the 16th, finishing in that greenside bunker on the left," he said. "But I felt I hit a good six-iron which was only about three yards off line from where I was aiming." So the gap was back to two strokes.

The 17th proved to be his undoing. "There wasn't much I could do about slipping on the tee," he said. But what possessed him to hit a three-wood second shot which finished in a pot bunker, rather than a mid-iron safely onto the fairway from where he could have reached the green with a wedge?

"From where I was standing on the edge of the second fairway, I couldn't see anywhere to aim at with a five iron," he replied. "Given that I had 260 to the front of the green, I still believe I did the right thing in trying to get the ball up there as far as I could with a three wood."

But wouldn't a five have been acceptable in the circumstances? "Sure it would," he replied. "And I was only trying to make a five, the best way I could. I wasn't trying anything courageous. I just paid a heavy price for pulling the shot slightly."

It will be recalled that Clarke had to come out of the bunker sideways and then pitched and two-putted for a six, against a par from Garcia. And at the last, the young Spaniard sank a 10-footer for a winning birdie three whereas Clarke was forced to hole a nine-footer for par after duffing an attempted pitch and run into the Valley of Sin.

So he will he looking to restore some confidence on his first visit to The Island, where he will be returning to a championship which he captured at Galway Bay in 1994. And the top prize? A modest £15,000 which himself, Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington received for failing to the Spaniards at St Andrews.

Meanwhile, the start of a "valuable relationship" between the Murphy's Irish Open and the community of Ballybunion, was marked by a civic reception at the golf club yesterday. Local hoteliers, publicans, councillors, neighbouring golf clubs and local businesses were present.

Promising that next year's tournament would be based on "co-operation, community involvement and most importantly good craic", Murphy's managing director, Padraig Liston said they were looking towards creating "a millennium festival worthy of our national open title."