Clarke on his way to victory in China
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There was never a more popular win than Darren Clarke's in the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai, where he rammed home a 20-foot putt to beat Dutchman Robert Jan Derksen of Holland at the 72nd hole.
After months in the wilderness, no wins for five years and having lost his wife Heather to cancer in 2006, the golfing world was pulling for the 39-year-old Irishman not to let this rare chance slip.
And after a couple of missed opportunities and dropped shots in the closing holes, Clarke looked in shock as his putt clattered into the back of the hole. None of us would have fancied his chances of rolling in the return putt if it had missed the hole.
Clarke, who leaps from 236th to 112th in the world rankings, having once been as high as ninth, declared himself re-invigorated, his tireless 10-12 hours a day regime on the practice range at his home course of Queenwood in Surrey at last paying off.
"My focus is to keep playing as much as I can because I desperately want to be get back into the world's top 50 and be at Valhalla for the Ryder Cup in September. So we will see," said Clarke
A long battle to find form saw Clarke changing shafts in his irons and hiring biomechanics experts to cure a miss-firing putting stroke.
"It's like anybody's job, where if you work and work on it but don't see any tangible results, it gets very difficult. That's what has happened to me. I have been working away and not seeing the results."
Watching his close pal Lee Westwood competing in the US Masters on television brought home his frustration.
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