Clarke is right on form for K Club

Darren Clarke's first steps back into tournament golf since the death of wife Heather were anything but tentative as he shot a four-under-par, first-round 68 in the Madrid Masters.

It was a warning to the American Ryder Cup team that he will be in great shape at the K Club next week.

And he could easily have returned a score in the low sixties.

Instead, he was left to lament a series of missed birdie chances in a round which contained only one bogey, when his ball ended up in a divot on the seventh fairway at the Moraleja course.

Clarke said: "I hit the right side of the flag most times and gave myself a lot of chances. With a warm putter I would have been an awful lot lower. But I was pleased to shoot 68. It was important I shot a good score on my first game back.

"I didn't want to go out and shoot 73 or 74 and have you guys on my case. I had 31 putts, but I hit 17 greens, so I played well."

It was only in the middle of the second half of a round which begun at the 10th that Clarke's game showed any sign of weakness. On the right hand side of the fifth fairway he needed the help of a tree to prevent his ball going out of bounds.

Playing in the company of two friends and former Ryder Cup partners, Thomas Bjorn and Miguel Angel Jimenez, a smile was never far from his face.

He even forgave a spectator whose phone went off during a practice swing, saying calmly: "Tell him to walk away, just in case it goes off again."

Clarke intends to push for victory at the weekend, to exorcise the ghosts of missed final-round chances at the Scottish and Irish Opens when, with Heather's health deteriorating, he found concentration difficult.

He said: "I was trying to win them for Heather and stuff, but it didn't happen. My thoughts were not always on golf."

There were signs he has turned that corner.