Ryder Cup Vice Captain Darren Clarke will return to the scene of so many European celebrations when he tees up in next month’s Saab Wales Open at the Celtic Manor Resort.
Clarke, the latest European Tour champion following his victory at the Iderbrola Open in Mallorca last weekend, is among the star-studded field for the £1.8m tournament, which takes place from June 2-5.
The Ulsterman will be joined in Newport by another Ryder Cup Vice Captain who also rediscovered his winning touch in Qatar this season, Thomas Björn, the triumphant Captain Colin Montgomerie and the man who captured the winning point, Graeme McDowell.
Miguel Angel Jiménez, Ross Fisher and Peter Hanson – all players in the Team which regained The Ryder Cup from the Americans last October – also make their way back to The Celtic Manor Resort for the Saab Wales Open, which sees big-hitting American John Daly make his first appearance in Wales.
Defending champion McDowell and Daly get Saab Golf Week off to an early start as they compete in a 12-person field alongside Ryder Cup stars Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, US Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer and golfing legends Gary Player, Ian Woosnam and Helen Alfredsson in a brand new event, PowerPlay Golf: Ignition, driven by Saab, on Bank Holiday Monday, May 30. This world-first event sees the launch of PowerPlay Golf’s innovative nine-hole, two-flag format.
Clarke climbed back into the top 100 oon the Official World Golf Ranking with his victory on a windswept final day on the Spanish island of Mallorca last Sunday. After playing a leading role as a member of Montgomerie’s backroom staff at the Celtic Manor Resort, Clarke has now reset his sights on playing in The Ryder Cup once again in 2012.
“I still feel I have got a lot of golf left in me yet and I will be trying to qualify for the Team,” he said. “I have still got an awful lot of things I want to do in the game.
“I want to start winning more frequently again. I am trying to get back into the world’s top 50 and I am now not that far away. Another good result and I will be back in there.”
The popular player from Northern Ireland made the last of his five Ryder Cup appearances in 2006, when he was at the heart of an emotional victory at The K Club after his wife, Heather, lost her battle to cancer the same year.
His victory in Mallorca was his first since winning twice in 2008 and his 13th in total on The European Tour International Schedule, a tally which includes two World Golf Championship titles.
Other former Ryder Cup stars teeing up in the Saab Wales Open include David Howell, Oliver Wilson, Søren Hansen, Niclas Fasth and Paul Lawrie, a former winner at the Celtic Manor Resort who has also returned to the winners’ enclosure in 2011.
Simon Khan, who defends his BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth next week, will also make the journey down the M4 hoping to regain the trophy he won in Wales in 2004.
