Clarke fires 62 after YouTube trawl; one back in bid for first Champions Tour win

Darren Clarke. Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Darren Clarke trawled YouTube and Instagram for a tip and found a nugget that helped him fire his lowest ever round in the US — an eight-under 62 — to lie just a shot off the lead in the  Sanford International in South Dakota.

The Dungannon man (52) was disgusted after his level par 70 in the opening round at Minnehaha Country Club. But all changed overnight as some deft internet surfing came up trumps and raced home in six-under 30 to end the tie tied for third with Fred Couples and Kevin Sutherland, one stroke behind Steve Stricker and Miguel Angel Jiménez. Scores

“I played so badly yesterday, I played so poorly, hit the ball awful yesterday, went back and watched a bit of YouTube and watched a bit of Instagram and found a little tip from somebody and came out and hit some balls his morning and thought, well, that felt pretty good,” Clarke said, who went out in two-under before making seven birdies on the back nine, sandwiching a lone bogey at the 13th between a hat-trick of birdies to start and four-in-a-row to finish. “Hit the ball really solid all day, so that was a bit of a change in fortune.”

Now in position to win for the first time on the PGA Tour Champions and for the first time anywhere since he won the Open Championship in 2011, Clarke added: “I just didn't have enough shaft lean and compression on it.

“I put the ball too high and getting the butt end leading a little bit more and what have you, and all of a sudden I started striking the ball much better. There's a lot of birdie chances out there, so somebody's probably going to get to 11 or 12 or whatever. 

“But it's nice, I had a chance a few weeks ago in the Ozarks, whenever we played up there, and that was good fun. The back nine on the last day didn't quite work out, but hopefully, I get myself in there with another chance again. That's all we can do, keep on trying to give ourself chances.”

While he twice shot 60 on the European Tour, Clarke’s previous best round PGA Tour-sanctioned competition was a 63 in the 2006 Bay Hill Invitational.

At tied third, it’s his best position entering the final round on PGA Tour Champions. He was tied third through two rounds at the 2019 Mastercard Japan Championship, and he finished tied fourth after a three-under 69 in the final round. 

He has five top-10s in 35 starts on the Champions Tour, and his best finish was tied second at the 2019 Cologuard Classic.