Darren Clarke didn’t stumble, but he did slip during Friday’s second round of the Senior Open Championship at Gleneagles Hotel Kings Course in Auchterader, Scotland — both figuratively and literally.
Clarke posted a pair of bogeys on the front nine, but rebounded with an impressive back and finished the day with a 67, good enough for the 36-hold lead at the event.
The Northern Ireland native sits at 8 under for the tournament, a shot ahead of Miguel Ángel Martín, two up on Scott Parel and three ahead of Stephen Ames.
“Around the front nine today, I was so-so. I slipped. My right foot slipped a couple of times,” Clarke said. “But apart from that, I played really nicely. I’m trying to hit a lot of fairways and give myself decent looks. All the way around the back nine, I kept hitting nice shots. And could have been a few better. But, you know, it’s the way it is.”
Clarke, who grew up playing links-style courses, felt right at home on the James Braid-designed masterpiece that opened in 1919.
“There’s a few flags that were out there today as well that you just cannot go after. You’ve got to hit away from those as well. So they’re a little bit linksy as well,” he said. “With the fairways being as good as they are, as tight as they are, you can really nip one. I got a little bit too much spin on the second shot into 17. But if you’re striking the ball, you can still spin it quite a bit.
“So it gives you opportunity. If you keep it in the fairway around here, you can score. But if you start missing the fairways, it’s going to be a struggle because you’re playing for fliers and the ball is releasing as much, you never know how far or short of the green or whatever. But the fact is so far I’ve done a decent job to get them on the fairways.”
Clarke is trying to add a Senior Open to his single major, the 2011 Open Championship, when he edged Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson at Royal St George’s Golf Club. He also hasn’t won on the PGA Tour Champions since last September’s Sanford International.
Although inclement weather is in the forecast for this weekend, Clarke said he feels comfortable in the soupy stuff.
“I grew up in it. It should be all right,” he said on Thursday. “But you know, I think Gleneagles does such a wonderful job with the golf course getting it ready, it would be a shame to get that much rain but a little bit of rain and wind doesn’t hurt anybody. You have to control the flight of your golf ball, especially around here on some of those tighter tee shots.
“You’ve got to shape it a little bit and try and control your trajectory a little bit, so hopefully we’ll be able to do that over the weekend.”
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