Relaxed outlook merits a winning chance for Clarke

Storm clouds don't appear on pro-am days. Yesterday, under a blazing sun, Darren Clarke missed a four-foot putt on the 18th green in Jerez, and smiled disarmingly.

Half-an-hour later, sitting in the top chair in the media interview room, the man who had previously occupied the seat felt that the Irishman required a little loosening up, and gently massaged his shoulders.

Jose Maria Olazabal's massage was hardly required, though, as Clarke - without the pressure of having to leapfrog Retief Goosen to claim the Order of Merit - appeared so laid-back that he was almost horizontal. All things being equal, Clarke should be second in the European Tour moneylist for a third time in four years come Sunday evening but, on reflection, he deemed it only "an average year."

On being pushed, however, he added: "Second three times in four years is better than being third three times in four years. It is frustrating knowing that I have come close, although I didn't really come close this year. I did last year, but the other times I did reasonably well to finish second.

"Winning the Order of Merit is definitely something I would like to achieve, and hopefully I can give myself a chance to do it in the future."

Clarke's expectations of himself these days are extremely high. As such, the past few weeks - one top-10 in three outings - have been the most disappointing part of a season that, nonetheless, has delivered three wins (one in Japan, one in South Africa and "the highlight," a win in the European Open). The week before the terrorist attacks in the United States, he finished second in a tournament in Japan and went to St Louis fancying his chances.

Since then, however, he hasn't delivered on his own expectations. "What happened on September 11th changed everything for everybody. It put everybody's game on hold. There were obviously more important things going on and, over the past while, I suppose I have been most disappointed with my short game. I'm going to need to work on that aspect of my game a lot over the winter," said Clarke.

In yesterday's pro-am, he covered the front nine in 30, but before anyone could rush out to put their money on him, Clarke added, "and I came home in a taxi." With the Order of Merit out of his reach, Clarke's focus can be concentrated fully on attempting to win the title on familiar terrain. He won here in 1998.

"It's always nice to come back to a course that you've played well on. I like this course. It has been good to me in the past and it is in pretty good shape. The greens are a bit slower, but good."

This may his seasonal swansong to the European Tour, but it won't finish his globetrotting. He takes a family holiday in Mauritius next week followed by the Million Dollar Challenge in Sun City, probably the South African Players' Championship in Cape Town the following week and, then, it is on to the Tiger Woods' organised Williams Challenge in California, where the winner gets $1 million and the last man $100,000.