Clarke plans fitness drive after ending nine-year drought: "The last victory I had I was drunk for a week; this time I won't be"

Darren Clarke. Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Darren Clarke will celebrate his first PGA Tour Champions win in a beach bar in the Bahamas as visa problems force him to miss the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.

But if you think the Dungannon man (52) is going to repeat his week-long 2011 Open Championship celebrations after his win the TimberTech Championship in Boca Raton, think again.

After going nine years without a win, many might expect him to overdo it, just as he did after he captured the Claret Jug at Royal St George’s.

But he’s promised to take it easy this time as he plans to get in shape over the winter months so he can compete on a tour that will likely see the likes of Pádraig Harrington join late next year.

“Well, the last victory I had — for The Open — I was drunk for a week, so this time I won't be. All you've got to do is be here two hours before tee time, the first tee time or whatever, and watch everybody and see how many guys are working so hard on the range. We all grind. The standard is so high now, you just can't afford not to.

“This is my last tournament of the year, which is great, but I'm going back to the Bahamas now and I'll have a week off. Then I've got another big programme. 

“My weight fluctuates up and down, up and down and when I get a certain point, enough's enough. So I've got my trainer and everything start, so I'll have a week's bit of fun and then I'm back in the gym full time down there as well. It may not be that many sea breezes, it may be more gin and tonics. Less calories in gin and tonics, so more of those.

“It's going to be a tough one whenever I'm down there at the beach, but I'm committed to do it so I just need to get myself back into decent shape again. Try to, at least.”

Instead of jetting off to Phoenix Country Club to try and improve on his 13th place in the Charles Schwab Cup money list with $616,932, the former Ryder Cup star must leave the US and return to his base in the Bahamas.

“I'll be out here now for another few years and I plan to really enjoy that,” said Clarke, whose status for 2021 was already guaranteed as all categories roll over due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “For the meantime now, as you said there at the start, my visa's expired, but with all COVID all embassies are shut and as a non-U.S. citizen, you can only go to the embassy outside of the US to get it renewed. 

“But they're all shut due to COVID, nobody's fault. And then my ESTA, which is thankfully what the US do with some companies around the world, is for 90 days only and that 90 days runs out on Wednesday. “Consequently, I've got to leave the country, which any other year I would be absolutely gutted to miss Phoenix. As it is, I'm gutted to miss Phoenix, but it's a rollover season for us so, it won't quite theoretically have the impact.

“That being said, having just won, I would love to go and try and win again next week, but unfortunately that won't be the case. I'm going to have to sit at the beach, at the beach bar called Flippers down in Abaco Club, drink some sea breezes, watch the boys on the big screen up there. “When everybody makes a birdie, I'll go cheer and have another sea breeze or a Kalik Light, it will be a little bit of both.”

Clarke won in his 40th start and insisted that the standard required to win is far higher than many believe, even for the players coming straight in from the PGA Tour.

“When I turned 50 I was exempt for a bit on the PGA TOUR Champions and to come over here, they've been so welcoming to me, so kind to me,” he said. “And the competition is brilliant. The guys, you can see the scoring, it's amazing, the guys can flat out play. 

“If you want to win out here, it's not what everybody thinks it is, it's not six and a half thousand yard golf courses, flags in the middle of the green, greens running at 10. It's far from that. It's a proper hard, stern test. If you're going to win, you're going to have to play very well and thankfully I was able to do that this week.”

He paid tribute to his new caddie Sandy Armour, brother of PGA Tour player Tommy Armour III, for his success.

“He was with Olin Browne for six years and thankfully I spoke to Olin, I asked him is there any chance Sandy could start work for me, and he said yes,” he said. “So it's worked out very well, three weeks on. And if we win once every three weeks, that would be a huge result. For right now I'm just delighted that I've managed to win out here.”

On hearing that Armour started welling up at the trophy ceremony when Clarke mentioned him, he added: “Bless him. Sandy hasn't won out here before. Been with Olin a long time, they've had lots of chances but he hasn't actually won. So we've had three weeks and he's getting to know me and that's pretty difficult to do with my tantrums. At 52, sometimes I act as if I'm 12 or 13. It's just getting to know your player, when to speak and not to speak, how much help to give him. He's adapted unbelievably quickly and he's done an amazing job.”