Darren Clarke takes command at Loch Lomond, but refuses to entertain Ryder Cup talk

Published on Friday 9 July 2010 21:19

DARREN Clarke carved out a three-shot lead at the halfway stage in the £3 million Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond yesterday, but he is refusing to get carried away about his prospects of firstly getting into next week's Open Championship and then forcing his way into Colin Montgomerie's Ryder Cup plans.

• Darren Clarke was in scintillating form for the second day running at Loch Lomond yesterday. Picture: Jane Barlow

As the likes of world No 2 Phil Mickelson, two-time winner Ernie Els and defending champion Martin Kaymer all missed the cut, the 41-year-old Ulsterman added a four-under-par 67 to an opening 65 - he's had just one bogey in 36 holes - to storm clear of a quality field in the race for a 500,000 first prize.

A win tomorrow would secure Clarke a place in the world's oldest major at St Andrews and also give him an outside chance of making a return to the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor later in the year, but the 12-time European Tour winner is determined not to get too far ahead of himself over the next couple of days.

"I've played nicely again and, in doing so, I've consolidated my position," he said of a leaderboard that shows the chasing pack being led by Italian Edoardo Molinari, whose younger brother, Franceso, is also in the top five on five-under, with Welshman Bradley Dredge and Peter Hedblom, the Swede who will be defending his Johnnie Walker Championship title at Gleneagles later in the year, sandwiched between the siblings on six-under.

"It's been a couple of years since I've been at the top of the leaderboard in a European Tour event, so I'm going into the weekend probably a little bit nervous but very excited at the same time. I want to get out there and play, give myself a chance and see how we go."

While Clarke's last victory on the European Tour came in the KLM Dutch Open nearly two years ago, he returned to the winner's circle earlier this week when rounds of 73 and 68 at Adare Manor saw him come out on top ahead of a whole host of the world's leading players in the JP McManus Invitational Pro-Am. He's maintained that splendid form so far at Loch Lomond, where he finished runner-up in both 2003 and 2005, but Clarke, who has played on five Ryder Cup teams - four of them as a winner - and just missed out on one of Nick Faldo's wild cards two years ago, feels he's got a long way to go before he can seriously be on Montgomerie's radar for Celtic Manor.

"I've got absolutely no idea where I am in the Ryder Cup standings (he's actually 38th on the European points list) but I told Monty what a major tournament I'd won at Adare Manor and also reminded him that they had obviously forgot to put the massive points from second place in my first tournament of the year (the Joburg Open] on the World Ranking list," he said jocularly.

Asked what Monty had said in reply, Clarke added: "He told me 'I've been watching' but let's behave ourselves about the Ryder Cup as I've got a long way to go before I can even start thinking about that."

After finishing his opening round in the rain, the leader had just set out yesterday when the heavens opened again but, after three-putting to drop a shot at the 11th - his second - Clarke hardly put a foot wrong for the second day running and stayed in pole position for the title thanks to a burst of four birdies in seven holes around the turn.

"The conditions were very, very tough," he said. "The ball was going nowhere, so consequently the course was playing brutally long. For example, the first hole is usually driver, 9-iron or driver 8-iron but today I was hitting driver, 4-iron. The air was heavy in the rain and the ball wasn't going that far. I hit some drives that I absolutely killed but they were going less than 240 yards."

Along with the rest of the morning starters, Clarke played virtually the whole of his round in the rain but it was testament to the greens, four of which had to be returfed in the build-up to the event, that they withstood such a deluge. "For the amount of rain that came down I think the course stood up remarkably well," noted the leader.

When asked for the last time he had played through such a deluge, he added: "It wasn't torrential heavy rain, it was just torrential rain. If you're from Ireland there's a difference, a massive difference, and at home in Portrush I've had much worse than this."

Playing in the afternoon, Edoardo Molinari only had to cope with the wet for a few holes but reckoned a wind that picked up as the skies brightened made it just as difficult as it had been for the morning starters. "I'd say this score was better than my 66 yesterday," said the 29-year-old of a 69, the same score posted earlier in the day by 27-year-old Francesco.

While the pair joined forces last year to win the World Cup for Italy, this is the first time they've gone into a weekend occupying such lofty positions on the same leaderboard. "Most times this year it's been a case of Francesco playing well and me playing rubbish then the next week it's been the other way around," said Edoardo, who finished second in last season's Scottish Hydro Challenge before going on to win the Dunlop Phoenix, Japan's richest tournament, later in the year.

"This is the first time we've both been in the top ten and maybe even the top 15 and the great thing is that, unlike the others, we are going to have double chance of winning here.

If one of us wins then we are going to be happy either way."

Dredge, bidding to make amends for blowing a golden chance to win the BMW International Open in Munich a fortnight ago, and Hedblom, who has been fairly quiet since his triumph in Perthshire last season, also shot 69s, with the leading Scot at the halfway stage being Stephen Gallacher (73) on two-under - eight off the lead.

John Daly, who started the day just two behind Clarke, had improved to six-under for the tournament with three holes to play but the former Open champion finished double-bogey, bogey, bogey for a 73.

Second round (Gbr & Ire unless stated, Par 71)

132 Darren Clarke 65 67 -10

135 Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 66 69 -7

136 Peter Hedblom (Swe) 67 69 -6

136 Bradley Dredge 67 69 -6

137 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 69 -5

138 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 68 -4

138 Damien McGrane 66 72 -4

138 Graeme Storm 66 72 -4

139 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 70 69 -3

139 Christian Nilsson (Swe) 70 69 -3

139 Rafael Echenique (Arg) 70 69 -3

139 Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 71 68 -3

139 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 68 -3

140 John Daly (USA) 67 73 -2

140 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 73 67 -2

140 John Parry 68 72 -2

140 Stephen Gallacher 67 73 -2

140 Anders Hansen (Den) 69 71 -2

140 David Horsey 68 72 -2

140 Heath Slocum (USA) 69 71 -2

141 Sam Hutsby 69 72 -1

141 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 69 -1

141 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 70 -1

141 Shane Lowry 68 73 -1

141 Richard Green (Aus) 69 72 -1

141 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 69 -1

141 Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 67 74 -1

142 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 68 74 E

142 Craig Lee 70 72 E

142 Graeme McDowell 71 71 E

142 James Kingston (Rsa) 70 72 E

142 Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 70 E

142 Danny Willett 70 72 E

142 David Lynn 71 71 E

142 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 70 E

142 Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 71 E

142 Jamie Elson 72 70 E

142 David Dixon 71 71 E

142 Martin Laird 71 71 E

142 James Kamte (Rsa) 71 71 E

142 Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 72 E

142 F Andersson Hed (Swe) 68 74 E

143 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 75 +1

143 David Drysdale 71 72 +1

143 Richie Ramsay 69 74 +1

143 Soren Hansen (Den) 73 70 +1

143 Tom Lehman (USA) 71 72 +1

143 Rhys Davies 69 74 +1

143 Johan Edfors (Swe) 67 76 +1

144 Ross Fisher 71 73 +2

144 Joost Luiten (Ned) 71 73 +2

144 Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 74 70 +2

144 Peter Lawrie 70 74 +2

144 Anthony Wall 68 76 +2

144 Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 72 +2

144 Gary Boyd 74 70 +2

144 Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 75 +2

144 Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 73 +2

144 Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 70 74 +2

144 Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 71 +2

144 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 74 +2

144 Gareth Maybin 71 73 +2

144 David Howell 71 73 +2

144 Richard McEvoy 71 73 +2

144 Mark Brown (Nzl) 70 74 +2

144 James Morrison 72 72 +2

144 Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 67 77 +2

144 Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 73 +2zz