Changed days

DARREN CLARKE is looking as crisp as one of his flushed iron shots. Sporting a double-breasted black suit with gold pin stripe, white shirt and bright gold tie, he is tanned, smiling and seems at ease.

He has good reason to, having been given a home on the Algarve by Oceanico Group as part of the deal to become touring professional for the company.

He can add it to those he already owns in Singapore, the Bahamas, Orlando and Sunningdale.

The 38-year-old Ulsterman has taken time out to be part of a large Irish contingent sitting in the Vilamoura Victoria club house to herald Oceanico’s £125m acquisition of a large slice of the Algarve.

Gerard Fagan, one of Oceanico’s two main men, is as Irish as poteen and clearly is still well connected with his mother country despite moving permanently to Portugal in order to buy huge swathes of it.

The Irish enfant terrible of landscape gardening, Diarmuid Gavin, is also here – although says he is still ‘conceptualising’, which is landscape garden speak for only having had the contract for two weeks and not knowing what to do yet.

Clarke has flown in on his private jet and is flying out the same day so it is important to catch up quickly with regard to his plans and hopes for the 2007 season.

These, inevitably, are shaped by the emotional rollercoaster of last year as his wife Heather succumbed to cancer after a brave battle before he showed a different type of courage by playing a starring role in that famous Ryder Cup victory.

As the sunshine pours through the clubhouse windows Clarke admits he is no longer beating himself up when he is not playing as well as he would like. The future it seems is all about his two young boys Tyrone and Conor.

“Everything comes second to my boys. If something happens, like one of them needs time off school, or something like that, I have to make sure I am there for them,” he admits.

Now outside the top 50, which automatically qualifies players for the leading events, Clarke knows he must play more golf.
When pressed about what he would change about his game if he could wave a magic wand over his game, he reveals he is not overly concerned about his shot making but might “possibly” do something about his putting.

“The game is not that bad. I just haven’t got the knack of scoring but it will come back again through playing tournaments.,” he suggests.

Struggling of late with a hamstring problem, he believes that regular action will see him retain his best form “I’ve had to take an enforced break from golf. I’m not trying to catch-up, I’m trying to play golf. And that’s what I’m doing. It’s definitely little small steps at the moment which is a little bit frustrating, but I’ll just keep on going.

“I have just got to keep on playing and doing what I am doing. I have not been known for my patience in the past, I have tried to force things a little too much, but at the minute I am having to be patient. My game over the past four or five years has been dictated by outside events.

“I want to keep on winning tournaments and I have a belief I can win a Major because there are no bigger tournaments than those. I want to get back to the form I know I can be in.

"I am not swinging the club that badly, but I am just not scoring the way I can. The more tournaments I play in the sooner I can get to the form I need to be in.”