What has happened to Clarke?

[Scottjd1]

I think DC still ahs a lot to offer, I was so pleased for thim to get the win and I am pretty sure that he will play good competetive golf.

Not sure the over analytical stuff is really relevant. If he wants to get back up there then he can and will. if he doesnt then he wont.

 

[EZprophet]

Darren has just simply lost motivation to compete, and has pretty much said as much a few times. He has now accomplished his dream, and knows how much it takes out of you mentally to do it, and simply can't muster the motivation to put himself through that again.

DC is a perfect example of how much of golf is played between the ears. Once you lose that competetive spirit and that willingness to dig deep to save those 2/3 strokes when youre not playing well, your just not going to play to the same level.

 

[coolhand]

The point about 3rd round scores is rubbish - using data from the link given order of play had little to do with it as can be seen below:

[TABLE="width: 379"]
[TR]
[TD]Pos after Round 2
[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]3rd Round Score
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]
[TD]JOHNSON Dustin
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]68
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]FOWLER Rickie
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]68
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]1
[/TD]
[TD]CLARKE Darren
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]69
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]KIM Anthony
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]70
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]3
[/TD]
[TD]BJÖRN Thomas
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]71
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]14
[/TD]
[TD]MICKELSON Phil
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]71
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]JOHNSON Zach
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]71
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]3
[/TD]
[TD]JIMÉNEZ Miguel Angel
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]72
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]
[TD]COETZEE George
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]72
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]
[TD]HANSEN Anders
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]72
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]
[TD]LOVE III Davis
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]72
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]14
[/TD]
[TD]PALMER Ryan
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]72
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]DYSON Simon
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]72
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]SIMPSON Webb
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]72
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]STRICKER Steve
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]72
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]1
[/TD]
[TD]GLOVER Lucas
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]73
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]3
[/TD]
[TD]KAYMER Martin
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]73
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]
[TD]LEHMAN Tom
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]73
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]14
[/TD]
[TD]SCOTT Adam
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]73
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]JACOBSON Fredrik
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]73
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]YANG Y. E.
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]73
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]3
[/TD]
[TD]CAMPBELL Chad
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]74
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]GARCIA Sergio
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]74
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]MCILROY Rory
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]74
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]ROCK Robert
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]74
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]
[TD]SCHWARTZEL Charl
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]75
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]IKEDA Yuta
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]75
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7
[/TD]
[TD]LARRAZÁBAL Pablo
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]76
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]14
[/TD]
[TD]LEWIS Tom
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]76
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]19
[/TD]
[TD]STANLEY Kyle
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]77
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]14
[/TD]
[TD]OVERTON Jeff
[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]78
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Yes for the early players the condtions where awful all the way round but even for last group they where bad for most of it (I know I sat through it).

The only luck involved in DC's victory was being born where he was, so he learnt to play links golf at it's most extreme.

 

[coolhand]

To add - anyone on the list could have caught him Rickie nearly did.

 

[Marko77]

For as much as he wouldn't change things the Open victory has perhaps been a bit of a weight bogging him down for it has brought on a whole load of expectation from him that he wasn't considering before RSG. Not only the off course PR events, etc but entry to events he probably didn't think he would be playing in. Perhaps following the win he starting expecting more from himself adding more pressure?

Personally, I think he, conciously or subconciously, wrote off the rest of this season after the Open victory and will look to come back next season raring to go. There's a Ryder Cup to qualify for and well, he has 5 years of Majors and World Golf Championships to look forward to.

 

[Yer Maw]

I really liked his Open victory but admit to being disappointed with his attitude thereafter because he is such a talented player, and it seems an incredible waste to me to be in a position to inspire and win more in a game you love.
Perhaps it is a reflection of how much money there is in the Pro game when you don't struggle to earn a crust and even mediocre placings give a fantastic financial return. This means the only desire to win is simply that, being a winner and sadly Darren Clarke seems to have lost the desire to win. Quite understandable though.
However, given his great personality he may be more suited to developing golf and motivating youngsters into the game as I'm sure he'd be a great ambassador and it would give him a lot of satisfaction. He needs a new challenge so perhaps the Ryder cup is that but he'll need to be playing well. Chances of being a Captain one day, very high.

 

[Captainron]

Winning the Open fulfilled a lifelong ambition for him and it must have diminished his desire whether conciously or subconciously. He has always been such a popular pro. Fans love him and he has made himself so accessible. Now this pressure to avail himself has increased a hundred fold and I think this is having a detrimental effect on his game. He experienced a similar 'slump' after the Ryder Cup in Ireland but he bounced back in time. He is class and I hope he has a great 2012 and is part of the team to take on the Americans at Medinah!

 

[Billysboots]

Darren has just simply lost motivation to compete, and has pretty much said as much a few times. He has now accomplished his dream, and knows how much it takes out of you mentally to do it, and simply can't muster the motivation to put himself through that again.

Bang on the money. That just about sums up where DC is by his own admission.

To have dragged himself back to a position where he could even play in a Major, never mind win one, after the few years Clarke has had is worthy of nothing less than the most enormous praise. He has earned every ounce of respect any of us can give him, and some of the detractors here should, to be blunt, hang their heads.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Lest not forget that since his RC appearance he has put a lot of time into his family, moving back to Northern Ireland, finding a new lady in his life and enjoying some down time. Hard to come straight back and be on full power. If you look at his performances towards the back end of last season there were glimpses of form and he admitted hes been working on his swing over the past 18 months (and will be again this winter).

It isn't unheard of for Open champs to have the breaks in the weather. Didn't both Harrington and Lawrie get some good fortune. Either way rather than run a guy down just because he hasn't found a balance between upteen events on and off the course and practicing and playing, lets enjoy another homegrown major success. Maybe it was his swan song and even if thats true (hope not) then its not been a bad career and definitely a case of going out at the top

 

[DaveM]

Annoyingly I just got logged out for taking too long to reply.

I didn't mean to open a can of worms, but I stand by what I said.

If you look at the stats, they don't lie:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/players/playerid=5889/statistics/index.html

Since 2004, almost all of his stats are going backwards: driving distance, putts, stroke average.

If you temporarily erase his winnings from the Open, he'd be way down the Race to Dubai with around 350k of winnings this year; putting him in around 80th place.

Look at his results all year:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/players/playerid=5889/results/index.html

There are some pretty big numbers in there and have been all year.

I'm not taking anything away from him. Clearly he's a top bloke who's been through hell off the course in recent years, and deserves all the success that comes his way.

However, I just think you need to look at his performances in context. His win at the Open was an unexpected high in an otherwise inconsistent season. His win at the Iberdrola Open came in a field missing most of the top 50 Race to Dubai contenders.

At the Open, his 3rd round teed off just as the wind and rain was dying down; he'd basically won it on days 1 and 2 because the weather then blocked others from catching him. Look at the scorecard:

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2011/tournamentid=2011049/leaderboard/index.html

Other than two other players, no-one came close in round 3. Not because of ability, but because low scores were so difficult in the conditions. On average, 3rd round scores were 5 strokes higher than rounds 1 and 2. Yes, I accept he played well on those days, but he was lucky to avoid an onslaught in the later rounds because other players had to contend with terrible weather; by virtue of being a later tee-off time he'd avoided the worst of it. Most scores are 73+ - you would expect there to be a bigger range.

I'm not knocking the guy - I would kill just to have 1/1000th of his talent - but at the same time you can't elevate someone onto a pedestal and ask what's happened to him by reference to one performance during the year. Other than the Open he's played badly by his own standards - which have been slipping since 2004.

Something's just not right.

Do you have a spreedsheet for this to?????

 

[brendy]

Do you have a spreedsheet for this to?????

Pah!! Lol
I'm horizontal on the sofa with my youngest daughter curled up asleep on my chest and I just woke her with a snorty outburst at that one.

Barry, how can you say he basically had it won on day 2? Have you ever played a 4 day competition? Every shot had to be thought out, club selected and hit. DC hit a lot of greens in regulation that week, better than his playing partners and better than those who were on the leader board come Saturday and Sunday who teed off in the same conditions, they fell by the wayside with only a couple mounting any sort of charge (which was in effect just holding onto par which was as good as a good round under par anywhere else).

 

[barrybridges]

Look - I'm not knocking him.

I've said that he deserves all the success he gets. He's had an awful time and good for him to have bounced back in the way he did. I'm not taking anything away from him.

What I am saying though is that the question 'what's happened to Clarke' is short-sighted and doesn't look at ALL of his performances across the whole season. That's what you need to look at.

Across the whole year he has been an inconsistent player. Put your pro-British bias onto the coat-stand for one minute and look at things objectively. One major an outstanding player does not make.

Not that I'd want to contrast things in this way, but let's compare DC against Rory, because in some ways they're achieving similiar things at opposite ends of their career. Both won their first major this year.

DC has openly said that he's struggled to find the hunger to compete once he reached the top. Since then, his performances - relative to the tour - have been very poor. In fact, he's come last or near-last in several events.

Rory - having won his first major - acquired the hunger to go on and be even better...to try to win more majors...more tournaments...and surge up the rankings.

They've both achieved a similiar milestone in their career, but one has taken the attitude of 'this isn't enough, I want more' whereas the other has said 'that's enough for me, how can I beat this?'.

Wasn't it Lance Armstrong (I might be wrong) who spoke to Steve Redgrave and asked him what there is left to do in sport once you've climbed Everest, to which Redgrave replied 'climb it without Oxygen'?

Sport is about pushing yourself to be better - and never to be satisfied. To view your first major as a life's work complete is not as good a role model as someone like Rory who has said 'this isn't enough, I want to be even better'. Who do you think young people are going to look up to more?

I totally get it - and I absolutely give DC credit for winning the Open after what have been terrible years for anyone to go through. But to have gone through such pain only to win one of the sport's pinnacle events; at least do your peers justice and fight on. Don't lose focus and say 'that's enough for me'. Fight on. Win more events or at least focus on trying to do so.

If you're going to give up then very soon once your exemptions run out your tour card will simply pass over to another upcoming McIlroy or Fowler with the hunger to win. Otherwise, are we not breeding a European tour with too many journeymen?

Rant over. I stand by what I say. I'm not taking anything away from the guy because clearly he's an inspiration and deserves all his success. But if I'd had the luck...skill...whatever...to win a major, you can bet that I then wouldn't be satisfied with finishing last or near last in all the tournaments that follow.

Heck, I might even have the humility to look at players younger than me to see how they've responded and learn a little from them. McIlroy - you would assume - has much more pressure on him from sponsors, corporates, press etc - but had learnt to manage things better. I don't think sponsors pressure is a valid argument from DC. He's a golfer: he would prioritise things better because clearly this is possible given McIlroy's managing to do it!

This is a sport and for most young amateurs it is more 'sport' than 'pasttime'. We look up to McIlroy not because he's young, but because he's ambitious and successful and is hungry for success. Just as we look up at the Federers, Djokovics, Webbers, Armstrongs, Woods and other sportspeople (not that Webber counts!) who've dominated their sport time-after-time-after-time year after year, we look up at those who - having tasted success - demand more from their performances. Because that is how we get better.

The European tour doesn't need to be an old boy's club of players resting on exemptions. There are plenty of upcoming young players who would kill for their card and who would - I assume - be quite frustrated to see the same faces coasting round with poor scores on the back of their past history.

 

[Imurg]

I have to say that a lot of what Barry is saying is true.

Take out his 2 wins this season and there really isn't much else to shout about.
Iberdola was an unexpected win.
7 top 10's in the last 2 years (51 events) - not really any long term form is it?
Take out the Open win and he would struggle to be in top 150 let alone top 50.

And it's been said in many a thread on this Forum that you only have to play well for 4 days to win a Major - exactly what DC did.
He's been on a downward slide for a while now - only he can bring himself back.

I hope he does but something tells me it's going to be a long road.

 

[Wildrover]

Let's face facts here.

Darren has never been a Lee Westwood or Luke Donald who grinds out top 10's, he pops up and wins now and again and then the form goes again, he is a streaky player. But he has now won a major, 2 WGC events and numerous other tournaments so if he never wins again to describe him as a "journeyman" is frankly ludicrous.

It is the idea that he was lucky at the Open which I take issue with more than anything. I suggest you maybe attend the Open in future Barry and stop watching it on the live score updates on europeantour.com and you might learn something that stats can't teach you. I was at The Open all week and to suggest Darren had it easy is one of the most laughable things I've read on here. He could easily have been blown away over the weekend in the high winds and rain whilst playing under pressure but he wasn't, he let Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson do that whilst he put into practice what he learned growing up.

 

[Imurg]

To win a Major you have to be lucky to a certain extent.
Very few have won one without it.
Don't forget DC bounced a couple over bunkers in the last round, DJ went OB on the 14th when he had a bit of momentum.
Not for one minute diminishing DC's win but there was an element of luck as well as skill involved.

And as I said - you only have to play well for 4 days to win a Major.
Without The Open win, DC would be even further down the slippery slope.
His results over the last 2 years prove that.

 

[brendy]

I think we have already agreed that he is a streaky player though.
Every one of the bigger comps that he won were unexpected.

That is just the sort of player he is, he seems to run in patches, whether that is due to home life etc, who knows. You said he "always has been a spent force". I bet Tiger didnt think that in 2000 when DC beat him 4&3 at the WGC matchplay, or by the 6 shots in 2003 WGC invitational or any of the rest of his wins.
I also can sit and spit out facts and figures, the guy is 15th in the european tour wins league, no mean feat. Especially when you look and see he is tied with Harrington and ahead of Tony Jacklin, Sergio (age obv), vijay, Bjorn, Paul Casey.

He still has years to go and Id say we havent heard the last of him.

 

[Monty_Brown]

There are only so many times you can say "I'm not knocking him" before clearly doing just that, before it starts to look silly.

Any statement or implication that he was lucky to win is just wrong. Yes he had some luck, but that is not the same as being a lucky winner.

Fields on the last two days are re-drawn to ensure that accusations of a lucky draw cannot be levelled at the winner.

There were 150-odd players in the field, many of them with similar draws to DC on days 1 and 2. He beat them. He beat everbody else. A fine achievement that deserves full respect.

 

[USER1999]

Thing is, he is a streaky player (as many here have stated). He won The Open, fine, and in the past has won numerous other tournaments, and qualified for Ryder cups, WGCs etc.

But, he is streaky.

So, what has happened to Clarke?

Exactly what his history would suggest. His current streak has ended, and he is now in the doldrums til another one kicks in.

It is no surprise. In fact, had he continued to play well, that would have been more surprising.

 

[Hobbit]

How on earth can a streaky player be European tour money list runner up 3 times? How on earth can a player who was in the top 10 in world rankings for 43 weeks be streaky? Once he'd established himself on tour in the 90's he had a tremendous record, including winning all around the world over 20 times. And at present his record is better than most European players that are currently on tour. Although, if you look at how many players win more than once in any particular year it does appear that almost everyone is streaky.

From the late 90's till 2004, when he took a fair bit of time out of golf for reasons most people know about he was stunning. And in truth in 2001, when the news of his wife's illness broke, he looked nailed on to win a Major at some point. It was when, not if. That's how good DC was until his family issues interrupted his career. And calling him a journeyman pro without actually looking at his career stats or considering his achievements in spite of his personal trials is at best ignorant.

And what has happened to him since his Open win? Many pro's complain of the post Major win media circus and the time spent in the media tent after every round of any comp that year and the tiredness that goes with it. And just maybe he's partying, and good luck to him if he is.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Think Clarke has amitted himself that he's a streaky player. SOrry Barry but all this in depth analysis and protestation about still liking him don't add up. Must be a formulae error on the spreadsheet somewhere. He had a run of form before the last RC with some very good finishes (Dutch Open in particular I seem to remember) and there were rumours of getting a wild card berth as a result. I think it'll be interesting to see what happens on 2012. He is supposedly working on swing changes this winter and I can see him still being busy particularly in the run up to the Open which may impact his time and form. Once he relinquishes the trophy and can focus entirely on the golf I have a suspicion he'll have an Indian summer