Open Champion Darren Clarke has his sights set on more Major glory as he prepares for next week’s US PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club in Georgia.
The Northern Irishman won his first Major at Royal St George’s last month, and although he admits he does not know how his performance in the year’s final Major will pan out, he is adamant that more success in the game’s biggest events is the goal.
“I don’t know what to expect yet,” said Clarke shortly before the start of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. “I just hope I play as well as I did at Royal St George’s. It took me a long time to win the first Major and hopefully I can get myself back up there contending again. That’s what my plans are.
“Having won one, I would love to get myself in positions to challenge for them and win another one if I can. The fact that I've done it before certainly feels very good.
“I've played five Ryder Cups, won two World Golf Championship events, won 21 tournaments around the world. I've done this and I've done that. There's not much else that I haven't done, and now I feel very fortunate that I've won a Major. I'm much more relaxed now to go out and play. My determination and desire hasn't gone down. If anything, it's gone up, but I'm much more relaxed about the whole thing.
“All that time before when I was contending, I had a lot of stuff going on in my life off the golf course. Golf was not my number one priority. It was something that I’d always wanted to do, to win a Major and get myself in positions to do so, but I had other things which were much more important to deal with,” he added, referring to the death of his wife, Heather, from cancer in 2006.
“From that point of view, I was doing the best I could that whole period of time and unfortunately wasn’t quite good enough. But at St George’s, I was.”
The 42 year old triumphed in testing weather conditions in Sandwich, but he is expecting an equally tough challenge in Atlanta, albeit from the course rather than the climate.
“It is extremely difficult,” he said of the 7467-yard, par 70 course. “I remember it being a very good but extremely difficult golf course.
“I remember watching David Toms’ hole-in-one on the 15th, the par three, when he hit a five wood. I think I might have dunked a couple of balls in the water on the 18th as well.”
