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Darren Clarke plays in Georgia this week at the McGladrey Classic in Sea Island with hope of reigniting his career on the lucrative PGA Tour, after an absence of seven years and taking advantage of the five-year exemption earned by winning the 2011 Open Championship.
The 45-year-old Northern Irishman has not won since that Open Championship at Royal St. George's in Sandwich, Kent over two years ago.
Darren is now ranked 283rd in the world but feeling good about his game after ties for 12th and a second place in the Nanshan China Masters last month. A week where Clarke bemoaned his failure with his putting during a final-round 72, having shared the lead at one stage.
"I’ve almost had enough of the long hauls all over Asia and all that sort of stuff,” said Clarke, who is exempt this season because of his 2011 Open Championship win. “Not that it’s bad, but coming over here is certainly a lot easier for me from a scheduling point of view.
“The PGA TOUR is the biggest investor in the world. Europe is my home turf, but it’s a great opportunity to come over here and play.”
“I just want to go out and enjoy myself,” Clarke said. “I’ve travelled all over the world for a long time and I’ve had a great time doing it. It’s almost like starting over.”
The journey will be made easier with a home in the Bahamas and a base in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Though Clarke added that he will maintain his European Tour membership as well.
"It will be difficult," Clarke said of playing both tours.
"But it is something I will try to do. I will see how I get on with it. But my first commitment is to the PGA TOUR, and I have to get my tournaments in on the TOUR since I became a member again."
Clarke will play next week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico and then plans to take December off before returning for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, followed by the Northern Trust Open and the entire Florida swing.
Clarke has won two other times on the PGA TOUR, in 2003 at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational (then the NEC Invitational) and the 2000 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
Clarke recorded 14 top 10 finishes from 2003 through to 2005, including four third-place finishes and a runner-up. In 2006 he was limited to 11 starts after the passing of his first wife, Heather. That September the Dungannon man was a wild card for Ryder Cup at the K Club thanks to vision of the Team Europe Captain, Ian Woosnam.
2007 was the last year Clarke played the PGA TOUR as he spent the past few years playing mostly in Europe, where he won his first major in July 2011.
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