Darren Clarke Wins
the 2011 British Open
(The Open)

A smiling, self-deprecating Darren Clarke hoisted the Claret Jug as if it was the prize for life itself. And maybe in a small way it was.

On Sunday, July 17, 2011, he won The Open Championship (aka The British Open)at age 42. His remarks after the awarding of the prize contained few references to golf – no talk of putts, drives or saves from the pot bunkers. Instead his speech was about perspective and people.

There is no doubting Clarke’s mastery of Royal St. George’s at Sandwich, England. He was not bamboozled by this tournament played in perfect links conditions: rain squalls, interrupted by spots of sunshine; brisk winds off the English Channel shifting to perplexing ball-snatching gusts. The “waterproofs” (rain-gear in American) were on again, off again, throughout the final round. Trouser legs fluttered as golfers took their putting stance.

There will be no suggestion that this win was undeserved though it was won after twenty years as a Professional Golfer playing in The Open and is his first major championship. Darren Clarke played practiced, confident, smart, efficient and sometimes lucky golf Thursday through Sunday.

Darren Clarke’s triumph and his post-win speech was a tribute to attitude and the people who helped him improve his. Clarke has had much to overcome. His wife Heather died in 2006 after a battle with breast cancer. When she died, their sons were ages 7 and 5. Heather was the stable foundation of Darren Clarke’s life and the center of her sons’. In his speech, she is, “someone up there looking down, saying, ‘I knew you could do it.’”

The operative word in the speech was support. He repeated in it many times in many forms: supported, supportive, supporters. He implies that he, “a stubborn man,” needed much propping up in his career and his life, especially in the last five years.

He mentions many who supported him: his parents, his sister, his fiancé, his competitors, his teammates at the Ryder Cup, his agent and his coaches. It was understood that the support he needed was not on fairways and greens but in his life, in his home, in his head.

The jubilant man, The Open Champion, glowed in the victory, the most prestigious in all of golf. But maybe just this once the Claret Jug was also a prize for a deserving life.

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