One for the old guys.

This last weekend saw the annual Open Golf Championship played out over the magnificent links at Royal St. Georges Golf Club, Sandwich, Kent.

As is usually the case, the great British weather played a huge part in proceedings with all four seasons coming and going within a few minutes, at one time on Sunday huge raindrops like goose eggs pelted down, followed a few seconds later by bright sunshine, the only consistent factor was the 20-30 mph winds that blew across the course all week.

To emerge as the Champion Golfer of the year in conditions such as those takes a rare talent, fortitude, a cool head, and a fair slice of luck. Darren Clarke has all the talent in the world, keeps a cool head under pressure, is perhaps more resilient than any other player on the tour, and admitted that he had his fair slice of luck too. Starting early on Thursday and late on Friday he managed to avoid the worst of the rain, although his 69 on Saturday in pretty dire conditions must have been the round of his life, then yesterday when it all could have fallen apart he played superbly, under the most enormous pressure to claim the Old Claret Jug.

Darren Clarke is a great guy, he has been through an awful lot in his life, his form has deserted him for years on end and he more or less took five years out of his career in the prime of his life to help his wife, in vain as it turned out, to fight breast cancer. He deserves every bit of the adulation that will come his way over the next weeks and months.

But what is really special in my view was the manner of his victory, he doesn’t use the course as his own personal spittoon like the un-missed Tiger Woods, he doesn’t complain about the weather like his young Irish protégé Rory Mcilroy, he doesn’t look like the world will cave in when he misses a putt like the eternally grumpy Sergio Garcia, he plays with a smile on his lips, and a twinkle in his eye, just like the late great Seve Ballesteros who lost his own fight with cancer a few months ago.

Darren like most of us Sunday golfers likes a glass of Red or a pint of Guinness, he knows his way around a menu, his parties are legendary. He generally avoids the gym like the plague, and is well known for having a quiet puff whilst stood on the tee sharing an off colour joke with his playing partners. I have not heard one person offer any form of criticism of Darren Clarke as a golfer or as a human being. The spokesman for the R&A said yesterday that golf is a game of skill and strategy, it is not always the strongest or fittest that come out on top.

So the much vaunted challenge from the world’s top ranked players failed to materialise, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood failed to make the cut, Mcilroy just made it but finished well back in the pack, Kaymer similarly never put in a meaningful blow on Sunday. It was left to the old guys Clarke, Mickelson, and Bjorn to show the flat stomachs how to play when the going gets tough; the only young pretender to show was Dustin Johnson from the USA who briefly threatened before succumbing to the treacherous par 5 14^th.

So Darren Clarke will show the world how to be a champion with humility and good grace, I predict that he will show the world how to celebrate as well, he is supposed to be playing in the Irish Open on Thursday next week, he said today that he’ll play if he sobers up in time, that’s my sort of golfer!!