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Clarke: On form at the South African Airways Open

He was swinging the club beautifully and hitting really good iron shots once again at the South African Open and if he can take that form into Joburg, and have a good putting week, we will perhaps see Darren Clarke back on the winners' rostrum.

Mark Roe
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JOBURG OPEN
Thu Jan 10 - Sun Jan 13
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The field isn't superstar-studded this week as the 2008 calendar year of European golf tees off with the Joburg Open but there is one big name in the field that everyone will be happy to see.

Darren Clarke's strong, third-placed finish at the South African Open, on a really tough golf course, will have given him a huge amount of confidence and was a terrific way for him to end a terribly tough 2007.

So it is interesting that he has decided to play in Joburg so early in the season and that is a reflection perhaps of a little new-found confidence and the fact that he may look at that event and think, 'I can win this'.

He has been working hard on his swing with Ewen Murray, particularly over the last couple of weeks, and he will really want to go out there and start the year with a bang.

He was swinging the club beautifully and hitting really good iron shots once again at the South African Open and if he can take that form into Joburg, and have a good putting week, we will perhaps see Darren back on the winners' rostrum.

He has to start to do that early on in the season if he wants to retain his Ryder Cup place for Valhalla in September. Clarke, like the rest of Europe's hopefuls, will want to play his way into the team rather than rely on a captain's pick as Nick Faldo will be looking to pick players, if they don't make the automatic ten, who are running into form for the match against the USA.

Anyone with a late burst, even from a long way back, could play their way into the team with victories at the right time and if that player has some Ryder Cup experience, that would be a huge bonus to Faldo.

Clarke is a great Ryder Cup player - he has a superb record with Lee Westwood - and Westwood is already sat second in the list with a million points thanks to some brilliant golf since the new points race started. Westwood should be nailed on for a spot and Darren will look at that and want to make sure he gets back into the team off his own back, to join up with his great mate again.

If Clarke is playing anywhere near his best golf, then Faldo will want him there, because Clarke's best is world class.

There were signs that Clarke was getting back towards his best at the end of last year and that means he will be back contending for titles and majors again.

Darren has always been a confidence-driven beast and needs to be playing well, putting results on the board. When that happens, as I have said, he is world class. He has won two World Golf Championship events and they are second only to the majors - that is the calibre of the golfer.

Prior to the ill-health and sad death of his wife Heather, everybody talked about Darren as a potential major champion. Time will heal Darren and once the confidence and focus comes back, he is a potential major champion again.

Last year there were signs of Darren smiling again on the golf course, which is what we all want to see, and so with the smile and the drive back, he can go a long way again.

It is fantastic for the Joburg Open that Darren is going down there to play. Wherever he plays he is immensely popular and everyone will wish him well down there.

He will have his work cut out to win though as there is always a strong, South African contingent on show in events based there and this one is no different.

Charl Scwartzel, Richard Sterne and James Kingston are three guys that you would expect to lead a strong South African challenge and all three of them are good on their own turf.

It might seem awfully simplistic to say this but South Africans play golf very well in their own country, where there is an art to playing the game. The greens are very grainy and not easy to read, so Europeans that don't spend a lot of time down there might struggle a bit.

The South Africans do putt well on their own greens and it Clarke, from whom we can expect another good ball-striking performance, will have to putt well too beat them. Very few will mind if he does.