Darren Clarke Thrives Thanks to Doctor’s Remedy

Editor’s note: Brian Keogh is a golf correspondent for The Irish Sun and a contributor to The Irish Times, Golf Digest Ireland and other golf publications. The following piece from Brian’s Irish Golf Desk is used with permission.

By Brian Keogh
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

DARREN CLARKE JUMPED TO ATTENTION under doctor’s orders to putt his way into contention for major glory at the 140th Open Championship at Royal St. George’s. The Ulster veteran, 42, cracked five birdies for a super 68 to finish just three shots behind first-round leaders Tom Lewis and Thomas Bjorn and immediately thanked mental guru Dr Bob Rotella. Now Clarke’s second-round 68 has given him the clubhouse lead at 4 under par as play continues on Friday.

After using the blade just 28 times on Thursday, Clarke beamed: “I’ve been lucky this week and seen an old friend of mine in Bob Rotella. I haven’t seen him for quite some time and was able to catch up with him because my ball striking and tee-to-green stuff has been very good, very solid, but the putter has been poor.”

Asked what the Doc had ordered, Clarke said: “He charges me a lot of money, so I can’t tell you that. But he knows me inside out. We’ve worked together for a very long time.”

Clarke said before the start that he needed his putter to fire on all cylinders to win the Open at his 21st attempt. While he’s won three times since 2008 with his latest victory coming in Mallorca this season, his cold putter has prevented him from re-establishing himself in the world’s top 100.

Ranked 111th starting the week, he has been overshadowed in the ISM stable by major winners Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Rory McIlroy, as well as world No 2 Lee Westwood.

But Clarke showed he’s still a force to be reckoned with on links terrain as he survived some blustery early conditions and then took advantage of a drop in the wind late on Thursday afternoon.

Believing he’s got enough in the tank to keep it up, Clarke said: “I’m not that old yet, am I? I’m only 42. I still behave as if I’m 14.

“But no, I’m enjoying it. The golf course is great, fantastic. It’s the biggest and best tournament in the world. Why wouldn’t I enjoy it?”

Brian Keogh covers golf for The Irish Sun and contributes to a variety of golf publications. Pay him a visit at Irish Golf Desk.

(Photo: Courtesy of zrim, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

2011 U.S. Open: Day 1 Belongs to Rory McIlroy

Editor’s note: I’m at Congressional Country Club this week covering the 2011 U.S. Open. Share your U.S. Open thoughts: Comment below or email me at armchairgolfer@gmail.com.

WHEN Y.E. YANG CAME HOME in 68 strokes earlier in the day, I thought the score might hold up for the first-round lead. But then along came Rory McIlroy who played what he termed “stress-free golf.” (I didn’t know there was such a thing at the U.S. Open.)

The supremely talented Irishman blitzed the difficult Blue Course, carding a 6-under 65 to take a three-stroke lead over Yang and Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, who also posted a 68.

Here’s what McIlroy said in a “flash” interview immediately after his round.

Q. That was spectacular, six birdies, no bogeys. Talk about your experiences in this round.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was a good round of golf. I didn’t really put a foot wrong. The only mistake I made was missing the green on 14, and I held a nice sort of 15 footer for par there. Apart from that it was pretty much stress free golf. It was nice. I feel like I’m driving it well. I’m hitting my iron shots good, holing a few putts. So it’s a nice combination.

Q. Is the course set up perfectly for you?

RORY McILROY: When I got here last week on Wednesday, I felt like the golf course set up good for me. It sort of worked out that way.

Q. I don’t know if you ever get comfortable on a U.S. Open golf course, but you looked comfortable, did you feel that way?

RORY McILROY: I did, yeah, I felt very comfortable. I said this in the press conference Tuesday. It doesn’t feel like a typical U.S. Open, for some reason. The golf course is going to get harder and it’s going to get firmer and it’s going to get trickier, but I still feel that it’s very playable and fair. If you don’t hit a fairway, you’ve still got a chance to hit it on the green and give yourself a chance for birdie. I like the way they’ve set up the golf course this year.

Meanwhile, McIlroy’s playing partners in the marquee grouping struggled to post a good number. Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson shot 74 and 75, respectively. With a ball in the water at the challenging par-3 10th (his first hole of the day), Mickelson’s round and 41st birthday got off to a rocky start. Lefty made a double bogey and had to steady himself the rest of the way.

The boys had a huge gallery, as you might imagine. I followed along for a few holes, but it was difficult to get a good look at the action.

In addition to McIlroy, Yang and Schwartzel, six players broke 70 in scoring conditions made easier by overcast skies and relatively cool temperatures. British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Sergio Garcia are among the group of players who are at 3-under par after 69s.

−The Armchair Golfer

Related:
2011 U.S. Open: ‘Big Blue’ Ready to Challenge Field of 156
2011 U.S. Open TV Schedule and Tournament Notes
2011 U.S. Open: A 16-Year-Old Player and Other Notes

Rory McIlroy and the 900 Pound Putting Gorilla

Editor’s note: Brian Keogh is a golf correspondent for The Irish Sun and a contributor to The Irish Times, Golf Digest Ireland and other golf publications. The following piece from Brian’s Irish Golf Desk is used with permission.

By Brian Keogh
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

RORY MCILROY’S BACK ROOM TEAM needs to wake up and face the fact that he needs help with his putting. The Holywood star’s manager Chubby Chandler confessed after the Masters disaster that McIlroy had a problem, but then said he didn’t know what it was. Odd.

Perhaps he’s nervous about adding fuel to an already raging bonfire after watching the 21-year old rack up a three-putt and a four-putt under severe pressure and miss more than half a dozen putts inside seven feet in the final round alone. Augusta National brutally exposes even the tiniest weakness and McIlroy’s putting, which is brilliant when he is in brimming with confidence, is hit and miss when the squeeze is on.

Instead of addressing that, Chandler spoke about McIlroy’s need to find a way of playing enough golf to learn how to win without burning himself out, which is ironic considering the moves made to reduce the youngster’s schedule this year.

Asked how McIlroy could recover from such a massive meltdown, Chandler said: “He is a smart lad, isn’t he? He knows there is a problem. But it is not an insolvable problem.”

So what’s the problem then?

“I don’t know what the problem is,” Chandler said as he dashed off to keep up with newly crowned Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, the latest client in his ISM stable to win a major. “I don’t know.”

What Chandler does know is that McIlroy is still a young man with lots to learn. But how much has been done to improve his short putting? The youngster has built several greens at his home practice facility near Belfast and worked with biomechanics expert Dr Paul Hurrion. But how diligently he has applied himself to the grueling monotony of practice putting drills is another story. Word is he found the grind a little boring when he was working intensively with Hurrion a couple of years ago.

The good news is that he has time on his side, as Chandler pointed out on Sunday night.

“It is just part of growing up,” he said. “He is just 21, don’t forget that. If he was in America he would still be at college. We are all thinking that he should have won the Masters. And he is No 9 in the world and we are all thinking he is underachieving. It is scary but that is how good he is.”

Having given up his PGA Tour card, ostensibly because the 15-event minimum forces McIlroy to play too often, Chandler instead believes that his golden goose will learn to win by playing and contending more often. But that doesn’t add up when it was decided last year to urge McIlroy not to retain PGA Tour membership and play just 23 events this year instead of the usual 30.

Playing less will take the pressure of the Holywood star’s body (he suffered back problems at the start of last year). But what he really needs is help with his pressure putting after a series of final day reverses when leading after 54 holes in his first three and a half years as a pro.

Chandler said: “The problem with Rory is that he doesn’t play a lot so you don’t get that much practice at winning. And that’s the balance now.

“How many times you should play to do that and yet stay fresh and focused? Because he came in here great, didn’t he. He was fresh every day. But you have got to learn to do certain things on the golf course.”

Putting apart, McIlroy made several strategic mistakes in the final round and paid the price for a pull-hook under pressure, taking seven at the 10th to kiss the green jacket goodbye. He is green as a professional but it was his form on the greens that really let him down on Sunday afternoon.

Brian Keogh covers golf for The Irish Sun and contributes to a variety of golf publications. Pay him a visit at Irish Golf Desk.

A Stunning New Episode of Masters Theater

“TO ME, GOLF IS GREAT THEATER.” Those were the words of Frank Chirkinian, the legendary CBS-TV golf producer who recently died after a long fight with lung cancer. Chirkinian, considered to be the father of televised golf, explained that he never thought of himself as a golf or sports producer. The golf course was the setting for drama, tragedy and triumph. Above all, it was theater.

Can you imagine what Chirkinian would have thought about this most recent Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club?

Like a lot of golf fans, I’m still trying to process what I saw take place yesterday amid the pines and azaleas, through Amen Corner, and on those last four holes. I wholeheartedly agree with Chirkinian. The Masters is certainly “great theater.” I’ve been spellbound by it for three decades. I remember 1986 and so many others. But I’d never seen this episode. Not even close. This one had everything, and it was mesmerizing.

The mind tries to pick a winner. Who has the lead. Who has the look. Who still has enough birdie opportunities and nerve on the way to the clubhouse. But yesterday it was impossible to identify the 2011 Masters champion. I couldn’t even narrow it down to two or three. This was by far the largest cast of Sunday contenders on Masters Theater.

Who would wear the Green Jacket?

It was Rory. It was Tiger. It was Rory. It was Angel Cabrera, K.J. Choi and Charl Schwartzel. It was Tiger. It was Geoff Ogilvy. Bo Van Pelt? No. It was Adam Scott. Definitely Adam Scott. Wait, maybe Jason Day. No no no no! It’s Schwartzel. Yeah, that quiet skinny guy who sinks every five-footer. (And chips in for birdie and holes out for eagle.) For the love of Jimmy Demaret, that 26-year-old birdied the last four holes to win the Masters!

Who had done that? Exactly no one in the 75-year history of Bobby Jones’s invitational.

Those four Schwartzel birdies, especially the final three that were medium-range putts, were stupendous.

Charl “Don’t Add ‘es’” Schwartzel didn’t lose any sleep on Saturday night like young Rory McIlroy. As Phil Mickelson said, it’s pretty difficult to sleep on a 54-hole Masters lead. It’s even more difficult to play with a four-shot lead. Poor Rory.

McIlroy’s implosion was probably the least surprising aspect of Masters Theater. Tiger’s charge was amazing and tragic. But nor was it the most surprising thing. What surprised me the most about the 2011 Masters was the number of players who struck quality shots down the stretch, who played their fancy white pants off to win the Green Jacket, even after Tiger set off explosions all over the grounds.

That was incredible stuff. It was good for golf. Most of all, it was great theater.

−The Armchair Golfer