Darren Clarke: Royal Portrush Key To Famous Victory

This Chronicles Unseen long-form article can be viewed in full on the oneclub.golf website. Enjoy a teaser below.

Royal St George’s was the venue for Darren Clarke’s finest hour in 2011, but his hugely popular triumph owed much to the countless hours he had spent at another Open venue.

A prolific winner of tournaments throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Clarke twice came close to glory in golf’s original Championship during this period, tying for second at Royal Troon in 1997 and third at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2001.

Although it would ultimately take the Northern Irishman 20 attempts before he was able to secure the Claret Jug, at a time when many had written off his hopes of becoming a major champion, he never once doubted his ability to achieve the feat.

This was in large part down to his vast experience of links golf and specifically Royal Portrush, a course that has had an enduring impact on Clarke ever since he first set foot on the hallowed links around 40 years ago.

Clarke’s initial introduction to golf came at Dungannon Golf Club, a picturesque parkland course in Mid Ulster.

“My dad started playing and I started caddying for him,” Clarke explained. After caddying for him for a couple of years I thought, I should have a go at this. This looks quite like a bit of fun, so I took up the game when I was 11.”

The young Clarke was immediately drawn to his new sport, so much so that he would take any possible opportunity to get onto the course.

“I just wanted to play as much as I could,” he said. “I couldn’t put the clubs down. I wanted to play all the time.

“I’d be training for rugby at school three or four times a week and then playing in a match on the Saturday morning and then as soon as it was finished I’d go straight on to the golf course.

“Even if you could only get out and play two or three holes in winter time, someone would collect me and run me out to play.”

Dungannon will always be a special place for Clarke, and he has since gone on to play a significant role in course design at the club, where the signature par-3 ninth hole bears his name.

Yet while he first learned how to play at Dungannon, a crucial stage of Clarke’s development occurred when he started to make weekly trips north to experience the joys of links golf.

“From when I was about 12 or 13, when I started really getting into it, my dad or friends from Dungannon would drive up to Portrush on a Friday afternoon,” said Clarke, speaking from the town that hosted The Open for a second time in 2019.