The R&A could be in trouble for a Claret Jug next year at Royal Lytham. Between Clarke's Guinness, McIlroy's Jaeger bombs, McDowell's vino and Harrington's Mi Wadi it may look like a pound shop vase than a silver trophy come next July. Darren Clarke smiled his way to the Claret Jug last weekend, with that he had Irish eyes smiling again too. The Dungannon man made it three major wins for the North in the space of a year, and in no time, after Harrington’s treble, has made it six Irish wins in the last eighteen majors. At his 20th attempt at the Open, Clarke was majestic all week, never getting out of cruise control on his march to his first major. I was fortunate enough to back him, 125/1. I could have got 200’s but the truth was he was the last of my 5 selections; therefore I was more worried about the competitiveness of the prices with Sergio et al. Back on the 15th of May I watched Clarke master his rivals at the Iberdola Open in Mallorca. I suggested then that Clarke looked in lovely touch for a tilt at Royal St Georges at 100/1, so 125’s was more than enough reward for this coward who put him at the bottom of the list. Remember readers, ‘the bigger the price, the bigger the bet’.
