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Darren Clarke is steeped in Ryder Cup history and a specially commissioned half hour documentary – produced by European Tour Productions and shown on Sky Sports this week – looks not only at that aspect, but also goes behind the scenes to capture the man behind the headlines.
‘Darren Clarke – The Making of a Captain’ – looks back on his five Ryder Cup appearances as a player and two as vice-captain, and also spends time with the 2011 Open Champion at his home in Portrush as well as garnering the thoughts of the people closest to him as to what makes the 46 year old the man he is today.
At times poignant, at times funny, the documentary – which gets its first airing on Thursday at 1.00pm on Sky Sports 4 – explains why the 14 time European Tour champion feels the captaincy is the highest honour which could be bestowed on him by his Tour peers, and also how he feels about going up against his good friend, Davis Love III in Minnesota.
Speaking to the media ahead of this week's US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Clarke said the anticipation was growing ahead of the impending start of the Ryder Cup Points Race but that he would be focusing on his own game for now.
"First week in September when the Points Race starts, I'll start playing very close attention to what's going on," said Clarke. "But at the moment I still want to try to play the best I can myself. But that will change as soon as the points start. I'll be more into how the team is shaping up and what's going on.
"But we have a big date coming up the end of the September, where Davis and I are at Hazeltine, we'll have a lot of stuff to do there. I know the European Tour have been out to Hazeltine looking at things. But Davis has the first choice on team rooms, hotel rooms, and rightly so, he's the home captain. But when I get there, I'll have the opportunity to look at things and make some more choices then.
"But certainly there's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. But in terms of my first and foremost role is to try and do whatever I can to enable the European Tour to have the strongest team possible. My interest is more in the players. We've got a wonderful backroom team in the European Tour looking after the Ryder Cup. I trust those guys implicitly with their decisions that they make. They involve me in them, but I trust them enough that they will make the right decisions for me. My interest is more on what the players are doing, and what their plans are."
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