CADDIE'S ROLE: And the lucky bounce at the right time didn't hinder the 42-year-old's largely serene progress to his first major title

AMID ALL the distracting hyperbole with media-favoured players before and during the 140th British Open championship it was difficult to remember the reality of a gathering of the best golfers in the world; most of these competitors can win if they happen to hit form that week.

Naturally it is easier for those, like Darren Clarke, who were not favoured to win at Sandwich to enjoy a less pressurised pre-tournament week and simply play golf.

Playing links golf is what Darren Clarke does best. It comes naturally to the big man who has some natural ballast in his body which lends itself to better balance in 25-mile-an-hour gusting winds. Who better to deal with such inclement weather than a man reared on it, in Northern Ireland? Who more fitting to hit a five-iron quail-high 150 yards into the wind with a foreshortened follow-through to control the ball’s trajectory into a zephyr?

Just as a course fits a player’s eye, the links land and its accompanying coastal weather can also make some players feel at home. If you were ever unsure about what the body movements were to play the punch shot, recall most of the exemplary approach shots Darren played last week in Sandwich; that was the punch shot at its best.

We have always posed the question in the caddie shack, what comes first, good golf or a good attitude? Following Darren’s progress up the leaderboard it was obvious he was striking his ball very crisply. We had evidence on television where Darren’s ball continued to finish pin-high on the green. More importantly, we could tell from the almost diffident smirk on Clarke’s boy-like face that spoke volumes of how he was feeling about himself and his game.

Darren was loving his job on the Kent coast last week and it happened to be the venue for the 140th British Open championship.

Clarke, in his two decades of professional golf, has always been viewed on tour as a great if somewhat volatile talent. He probably cannot remember how many different bagmen have been on the other side of his bag throughout the years, including me for a very short spell many years ago.

I always remember Darren frequently wanting someone else, on the course the caddie, to take responsibility for a decision made. This, of course, is never going to bring success to a talented player; you need to take total control and use your aides as advisers not punch bags.

Although the BBC’s extensive coverage of the British Open is now an institution in itself with its own special way of presenting the famed championship, it is very refreshing to view a tournament from a different perspective. They did not provide us with much of the pre-shot preamble between player and caddie.

While viewing Darren on the 10th hole on Sunday I was impressed by the control he took in deciding a tricky club out of unpredictable rough. He had a club in hand and looked like he took total responsibility in changing to what turned out to be the right club without being prompted by “Muller”, his caddie.

All players are aware of how their attitude is key to their performance and it is what separates a good from a great performance. It could also be viewed as a natural handicap to very talented players to keep them from dominating. How many times have we heard it said about players “if only he could keep his head on”? In the caddie shack, we hear this every day.

Darren kept his head on at Royal St George’s, seemingly all week long. At 42 years of age the chances are you are going to mellow slightly.

An accomplice of his with a suspect attitude also featured prominently last week, Thomas Bjorn. Tom is another hugely talented player who was always in danger of imploding under pressure rather than thriving.

Both players are very similar in the sense they are excellent ball strikers. It is no wonder Clarke and Bjorn played so well in a strong wind. Such velocity of wind requires almost the perfect strike constantly and then some luck to go with it.

Most of us on tour recognise players by their gait, even from a distance. The characteristic of Clarke’s walk is the speed of it. In general he has a bustling, purposeful stride which, accompanied by a plume of cigarette smoke, you would associate with an anxious, discontented person. Not so last week. He ambled along the fairway with a contented expression on his face that could almost be mistaken for smugness.

He looked calm and confident. What came first, the calmness leading to the confidence or the way he was striking the ball resulting in a calm demeanour? I don’t know if Clarke himself could honestly answer that. It is the mystery of balancing talent with expectation under pressure, we all struggle with this delicate balance at our varying levels in sport.

As Wayne Grady suggested in his gentle, rasping Australian brogue, Darren had the British Open in the palm of his hand like a butterfly half way through the back nine. He just needed to close his fingers around it and Ken Brown wisely added, without crushing it over the closing holes.

You have to be good to win but you also need to be lucky. The humps and bumps of Royal St George’s have always been questioned as being too severe even by links standards. But you can benefit from a good bounce. Darren got very lucky on the ninth hole when his approach shot jumped a fairway bunker well short of the green. The fortuitous bounce turned a potential double bogey into a par. This was the pivotal moment of Clarke’s day. When you see this happen at a crucial stage you could argue that his victory was destiny.

With 20 years a trying and 10 years of making very little impression at any major it looked like time might have been running out for the otherwise very successful golfer from Dungannon. With his work ethic and tenacity he obviously still believed he could win a big one and his dream came true on a windy, bumpy links in Kent where pure striking and the golfing gods helped Darren over his first major hurdle.

CADDIE’S ROLE