You could draw a strong similarity in the pitching and rolling of the boat Darren Clarke was aboard last Monday and The Open Champion’s 2011 season.
A day after finishing last in the Dubai World Championship, Clarke went about a half-a-mile off the Dubai coast aboard a 30-metre fishing boat.
But while Clarke managed to land a few Queen fish it was a turbulent time for he and those aboard as they battled a swell of some eight to 10 feet high.
Clarke then headed to Thailand for the final event on the 2011 Asian Tour schedule and a tournament being staged in honour of the King of Thailand’s 84th birthday and also looking to raise funds for those affected by the devastating floods to hit the Thai capital.
Darren Clarke in happier times as winner of the Open Championship.
Some 2.5m Baht (Euro 61,500) was pledged on Tuesday night at a gala fund-raising dinner with a Clarke autographed Royal St. George’s flag going for 300,000 Baht ( Euro 7,400) and then the Ulsterman matching that amount from his foundation towards relief efforts.
But it is relief Clarke desperately seeks and that will come Sunday night, if of course the Portrush man makes the halfway cut.
“I am really ready for a break as I haven’t played that good since The Open,” he said.
“I’ve done a lot of travelling this year and while I enjoy playing around the world, I just want to get home and relax and have a nice Christmas with Allison and the boys.
“But having won a Major Championship the last thing you want is to play bad and I have been incredibly frustrated, and no more than last week. I had 134 putts last week in Dubai and much as I tried, and the harder I tried, the worst my results have become.
“So it’s also been incredibly disappointing but that is the game.
“The game of golf is fickle and it just shows how easy it can be to go from the incredible high of winning a Major Championship to what I’ve been through these last few months.
“I’ve had highs and lows throughout my career but none like this year because I have worked particularly hard.
“But when I get back to the house next week and see the Claret Jug sitting there, it will remind me what you can achieve in this game.”
Darren Clarke looks out over calm waters from the 18th tee at Amata Spring and looking to climb out of the trough he's been in since capturing the Claret Jeg.
Clarke confessed the schedule he set himself at the start of the year changed considerably after winning golf’s oldest Major.
“I found out there is a lot more demands on your time as a Major Champion and while I’ve tried to accommodate people it’s hard to be talkative when you’re playing poorly,” he said.
“Winning The Open presented me with so many more opportunities but I’ve also become more frustrated than I’ve ever been in my career.
”But the main thing after this week is to get back home, relax and try not to think about golf, if I can.”
And when asked if there have been any highlights since his Sandwich success, Clarke struggled to single out even one.
However his caddy, John Mulrooney stepped forward to remark: “In fairness Darren, if they had of offered you the Claret Jug at the start of the year you would have snapped someone hand’s off.”
Clarke is no stranger to this week’s Amata Spring course having been a member of a past European Royal Trophy team.
However it’s the first occasion he’ll play the course with a scorecard in his pocket given the stroke-play nature of the event.
Amata Spring’s standout hole is easily the 130-metre par three, 177th where you hit to a floating island green, and a hole that can be lengthened or shortened by way of underwater pulleys.
After Clarke hit an 8-iron to some 15-feet left of the flag in Wednesday’s pro-am, he beckoned Mulrooney to try his hand, and just as the caddies do at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass ahead of the annual Players Championship.
Clarke teased Mulrooney why the need for a glove before the Irish caddy hit a 7-iron into a strong breeze that found a watery grave just feet short of the green.
Then after hitting off you walk some 50-yards right and down to a floating pontoon where a boat, manned by two chaps dressed like sailors, convey you to the green. And once on the green you can easily feel it rocking gently.
More frustration for Clarke with his drive landing in right rough during Wednesday's Pro Am.
“Other than playing in the Royal Trophy, I’ve never ever played a hole like it before,” said Clarke.
“The good thing is that I will have some advantage on the guys this week having played the course before.
“So I hope to play well but as I said before, I need a rest. I really do. I am making more mental errors than I have ever done before in my career.
“If I wasn’t hitting the ball that well I would be fine but I am hitting the ball well okay and making too many mental errors and that is a sign of tiredness.
“It has been a very long year.”
And Clarke looks to turn off from golf in coming weeks he has promised himself to do one thing and that is to look a video highlights of his Open Championship success.
“I’ve never watched any highlights of me winning at Royal St. George’s, so I am going to do that over the short break I’ve got ahead of me,” he said.
“Hopefully, it can be an inspiration for me heading into 2012.”
