Relaxed Clarke looking for major boost

Philip Reidgets Darren Clarke's views as he prepares for his only major this year with the intention of getting picked for the Ryder Cup

AUGUSTA NATIONAL. Torrey Pines. Royal Birkdale. So far this year, Darren Clarke has been an outsider looking in, an absentee from the events that matter most to any professional golfer worth his salt: the majors. Until now, his experience of the majors has come through the medium of television, a grim testament to his plight in no man's land.

But, now, the tide has turned; and the graph - as it has been for much of his career - is again an upward one.

In a way, the irony won't be lost on Clarke that, having received a special invite into the US PGA championship, his tied-sixth finish in last week's Bridgestone Invitational in Akron actually moved him to 87th in the latest world rankings. If he'd been that high in the rankings two weeks ago, he wouldn't have needed a special invite. He'd have been here off his own bat. Still, the PGA of America's gesture has proven to be apposite.

On Tuesday evening, as he trudged up the 18th fairway at the end of his first practice round, Clarke was back where he knows he belongs: preparing to play in a major. It'd been a long old day, though. Not helped by the fact, or "faux pas" as he put it, of only taking a banana for breakfast and failing to eat throughout the day as his mind got preoccupied with working on the range, the putting green and then on an unforgiving course.

By the time he'd completed his practice round over a course that holds good memories from the 2004 Ryder Cup, Clarke was wilting . . . and famished. Yet, an indication perhaps of his more relaxed demeanour, there was no steamrolling his way through the media pack assembled at the back of the 18th green. Instead, the old and familiar greeting to hacks was barked out. "Shoot!"

For Clarke, this US PGA is important on a number of fronts. Firstly, it is the only major he will play in 2008; and, secondly, it will provide a springboard to a possible place on Europe's Ryder Cup team for the match against the United States in Valhalla next month.

Four years ago, 'Clarke was an integral part of the European team that defeated the Americans in the Ryder Cup here at Oakland Hills. The course has changed since then, lengthened and with bunkers added, but Clarke - who turns 40 next week - also believes he is a better player than he was then, "even though my scores and golf wouldn't suggest it. But my swing is better, and I'm a bit more calm than I have been. All round, I'm probably a little bit better."

It hasn't been easy for Clarke to have missed out on playing in the majors this season.

"I've missed the big tournaments, they're the ones I want to play in. I enjoy them, and that's what I hope to do this week. Last week (in Akron) I was very calm and relaxed and invariably that's when I play as well as I can. Whenever I take everything slower, I hit the ball, find it and hit it again. I don't always get myself into that way of doing things but it is when I play my best."

And as far as the Ryder Cup is concerned?

"If I don't play well in the next three weeks, there's no way I would merit a pick. At the end of the day, I've got to try to play as well as I can this week and we shall see what happens."