A golfer loved for his courage and charisma, Darren
Clarke has the crowds behind him. They know he is a
warm, funny raconteur who likes a Guinness, who both
works hard and plays hard. More important, they know
that this man pulled himself up by his bootstraps,
having lost his wife Heather to cancer, to triumph at
the 2006 Ryder Cup. Just days before the start of the
2011 Open at Royal St George's, Darren's game had once
again deserted him, leaving him 'putting like a man with
blurred vision'. A month before his 43rd birthday he was
not in a good place. But Heather was 'watching from
above', the crowd were roaring him on, golf guru Dr Bob
Rotella was telling him to 'go unconscious' - and
something sparked inside him. The rest is golfing
history. Born in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, Darren
caddied for his golf course greenkeeper father, turning
pro in 1990. He has played in four victorious Ryder Cup
sides and beat his close friend Tiger Woods in the
36-hole final of the 2000 WGC-Andersen Consulting Match
Play. In 2002 he became the only player to win the
English Open three times.In An Open Book he speaks
candidly about fellow-players, coaches and golfing
psychologists; about how he was bullied at school,
narrowly missed and IRA bomb and eventually set up a
foundation to develop junior golf in Ireland; and about
how he found personal happiness again, marrying Alison
Campbell in April 2012. Most vividly of all, he takes
the reader down those rainswept fairways to the ecstasy
of that final putt when, at his 20th attempt, he lifted
the silver claret jug. |
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