Darren Clarke trophy joy ‘just absolutely brilliant’ as new partner ends in same old outcome
Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke started out his trophy defence with a different playing partner but finished in a familiar outcome on Sunday by holding The American Family Insurance Championship for a second successive year.
Winner of the Open major in 2011, the 57-year-old was back in the honours across the weekend with a single-shot success alongside Ben Crane to split the $600,000 winner’s purse at TPC Wisconsin.
With Thomas Bjorn unavailable following recent spinal surgery, Clarke lined out alongside Crane for the two-man team format.
"Just brilliant,” said Clarke, with Kenny Perry and George McNeill next home on the leaderboard from the field of 38 partnerships. “It was great last year having Thomas as a partner, then to come here again and to have Ben as my partner this year has been just absolutely brilliant.
"To be able to go back-to-back, you need special players to win any tournament if you're going to be a team...I've been fortunate, I've had two of them in a row.
"When you play on a team thing, you're not just playing for yourself, you're playing for your partner...it's different, a different type of pressure there, there's a different type of enjoyment there.
"To see Ben's exuberance, his excitement, everything about it just helped me...I've seen a little bit before and been around a little bit, he's like a proper rookie today, he's just excited, just loved the thrill of being in there.
"It was just absolutely brilliant all week.”
Clarke expanded on his enjoyment of the team experience.
"I'm enjoying myself...I love the Champions Tour,” said Clarke, of the PGA Tour circuit open to players 50 years old and over. "The team golf is always the scenario, you've got to almost prepare yourself for worst-case scenario...like your opponent's chipping in or your opponent's holing a putt or something and missing.
"That's not the way you want to think, but you've got to prepare yourself because if you go too much the other way, then it's a big letdown.
“We didn't play the last the way we wanted to play, but we had two putts to win the golf tournament.
"If you had offered us two putts…"
He added: “Sometimes you win tournaments and just you cruise and it's beautiful and it's an easy thing.
"Sometimes you win tournaments and it's difficult, it's hard...we had that today.
"Sometimes you get a little bit more enjoyment out of the hard times than you do out of just hitting every shot the way you want to.
"We both ground as hard as we could today to get holding this trophy.”
Clarke highlighted how ”we rarely have the opportunity to play teams in professional golf”.
"When we do, it's such a privilege, such a treat,” he said. "I've had Thomas last year and Ben this year playing team golf.
"I grew up playing rugby, team sport...we don't get the chance.
"Ryder Cups, that's why they're so special...it's team things, it's playing with a partner, it just makes it that much more special.”