Inspired Clarke storms into lead

On the sort of day that would test the patience of a saint, Darren Clarke refused to crack. His reward for such fortitude, in a persistent stiff wind with the odd shower thrown in for good measure, was a majestically-carved round of 65 for a 36-hole total of 11-under-par 133 which enabled him to assume a two-stroke lead at the midway stage of the English Open at Hanbury Manor yesterday.

What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four hours earlier, Clarke had been totally at odds with himself after a round that included 32 putts. "We all lose our heads some time," he remarked, with a grin.

Yesterday, however, the putter acted like it had just been taken out of the oven - "I suppose it couldn't have been much colder than in the first round, could it?" he enquired - and Clarke was required to use the blade just 26 times. And, in golf, that's what really matters.

Clarke, indeed, hit a hot streak on the way home with a 3-3-2-4-3 finish (all birdies) for the final five holes that lifted him into the lead on his own, two shots clear of overnight leader Geoff Ogilvy of Australia, who birdied his last two holes.

For the rest of the Irish contingent, however, it proved to be a frustrating day and only Eamonn Darcy, on the cut mark of level par 144, survived. Philip Walton, Des Smyth and John McHenry - all in need of prizemoney to boost their attempts to retain tour cards - all perished.

Admittedly, they weren't alone. Perhaps the biggest casualty of all was Lee Westwood, still not firing on all cylinders after his recent shoulder injury. Nick Faldo also endured an anxious afternoon before confirmation of his survival on the mark.

So, for the second week running, Clarke assumed the half-way lead in a European Tour event. In last week's PGA Championship he suffered a miserable third round 77 to fall away, but Clarke is more confident about his prospects this time. "That 77 was a severe body blow to me," he admitted. "But I've got back on the rails quickly, and I have to put that round down as just one of those days. It's nice to be leading again, the more often the better as far as I'm concerned."

Putting was the key. After Thursday's round, Clarke hotfooted it home to Sunningdale and, later than evening, took his putter out of the boot of his BMW and spent an hour and a half putting on the carpet of his home. And it all came good in a round yesterday that featured nine birdies and a mere two dropped shots.

Clarke, though, had his share of fortune too. "We all need breaks here and there," he conceded. At the fifth hole, a 464-yard par four that played directly into the teeth of the wind, Clarke's three-wood approach was pulled left and he finished just four feet away from a drain. But he proceeded to pitch in from a seemingly impossible position for a birdie when, he admitted, "a bogey looked to be on the cards," adding: "That pitch-in felt like an eagle in those conditions."

In fact, Clarke had made a number of good par saves over the opening stretch - getting up and down from a greenside bunker at the second and then repeating the feat from off the back of the fifth - before incurring "a silly bogey" at the downwind par five ninth hole. Rather than irking him, though, it spurred him on and an eight iron approach to 15 feet at the 10th sparked off a homeward journey that was covered in a mere 30 shots.

Although he bogeyed the short 11th, when overshooting the green, he got it straight back with a birdie at the next. But the real work was done from the 14th hole where a sand wedge pitch to eight feet set him up for a sequence of five successive birdies. "I'm enjoying what I'm doing," said Clarke, "and my game is just getting better and better."

Indeed, Colin Montgomerie, who was six shots behind Clarke at the midway stage last week and then went on to win the tournament, put his finger on the fickleness of golf. "It's a very humbling game," he said yesterday. "Just when you think you have found the answer, it comes back and bites you."

This time round, the Scot is seven shots adrift of Clarke heading into the weekend - and the Irishman is well aware of the threat, even from that distance. "There are two rounds to go and Colin is capable of doing the fantastic. But that just makes me more determined to succeed."

Meanwhile, the thin line between failure and success was again demonstrated for a number of Irish players. Philip Walton started out with three straight birdies and signed for a 69, but his total of 145 was one over the cut. And McHenry was stubbornly holding on until dropping six shots in four holes (from the fourth, his 13th) which proved his undoing, while Smyth suffered a double-bogey seven at the second and couldn't recover the shots. He had a 74 for 146, two too many.