‘Regular bloke’ Clarke joins the heavyweights of golfing history

In the days leading up to the Open Championship, Rory McIlroy told Darren Clarke to ‘get his finger out’ and go win a major for himself.

At an emotionally-charged Royal St George’s last night, Clarke emerged from the howling gales and the driving rain with his fingers out and clasping the famous Claret Jug.

Clarke’s major victory may not represent the changing of the guard his compatriot’s did at Congressional at the US Open last month.

For McIlroy remains the game’s future. But for one-off victories that tug on the heart strings, it is hard to equal.

Clarke is the game’s present, and the people’s Open champion.

The regular bloke with a Guinness in one hand and a cigarette in the other. “It’s because I’m a normal bloke,” he said when asked why he will be such a popular Open champion.

“I like to have a pint. There’s not many airs and graces.

“I’m on weight watchers tomorrow morning.

“(Manager) Chubby (Chandler) might give me an extra day off. I’ll probably get bored with it.”

This was a triumph for the man in the street, a golfing success story that transcends the sport.

Clarke is not just a professional golfer, he is a widower, a father, a fiance.

He has been through up and downs on the golf course – the emotional Ryder Cups, the near misses in the majors.

But they pale when compared with the tragedies he has suffered in his personal life, most notably the death of his wife Heather in 2006 after a long battle against cancer.

“It was all worth it,” he said of his golfing rollercoaster ride, glancing at the Claret Jug.

“To sit here talking to you guys being the Open champion means the world to me.”

And how beautifully he plays golf, how composed, how measured.

How confident he was to withstand the challenge of the charging Phil Mickelson and raise his game again.

“I said Saturday that I couldn’t control what anybody else does,” he said. “I got a text from Rory reiterating the text I sent to him whenever he was going out to play at Congressional.

“I had a couple of really good messages, texts from Tiger (Woods), he was giving me a couple bits of advice, which was brilliant. That made (the final round) a little bit easier.”

At 42 years and 337 days he is the oldest player to win the Open since Roberto di Vicenzo in 1967.

He is also the first Briton to land the country’s home major for 12 years.

The galleries have waited a long time, they thought perhaps they had passed through Clarke’s chance to claim the grandest prize in golf.

But yesterday he proved us all wrong, delighted the crowds and his fellow Northern Irishmen McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.

McIlroy, who faded yesterday, is the man over the coming years likely to grab the mantle from the stricken Woods and take golf into a new era.

He owes much of his acclimatisation to championship golf to Clarke. McDowell, similarly, is indebted to an inspiring figure who has been around the block a number of times in his two decades in professional golf. “We are just blessed to have two fantastic players in Rory and G-Mac,” said Clarke.

“I’m just the older guy coming behind them.

“To have three major champions from a little place like Northern Ireland is just incredible.”

While Northern Ireland celebrates, England is left to reflect on another major that slipped by.

Yorshire’s Simon Dyson was the highest-placed Englishman in tied-ninth, and full credit to him.

But there were more of England’s top players who watched the action unfold on television than actually played a part over the weekend.

Luke Donald and Lee Westwood may be top of the rankings, but it is men like McIlroy, Clarke, McDowell, Padraig Harrington and Martin Kaymer who have the accolades that matter.

Clarke became the 12th winner of the last 12 majors, and the sixth consecutive European Tour member to win one of the game’s defining prizes.

America is searching for its new hero as the uncertainty over Woods’s future continues.

At Sandwich, though, any fears that American golf was in decline were allayed.

There is fire still in Mickelson’s belly, Dustin Johnson has been in and around major leaderboards regularly over the last two years and Rickie Fowler showed the composure and mental strength to play through the capricious weather and mount a sustained challenge.

McIlroy versus Fowler could become a colourful, mouthwatering and regular occurrence over the coming years.

Anthony Kim emerged from relative obscurity in recent months to launch a challenge yesterday that eventually floundered. Lucas Glover is one of those to have laid claim to a major in the last 12 tournaments, and he again threatened for much of the week.

Indeed, seven of the top 12 were from the United States.

Northern Ireland and Europe leads the way, America is responding, England needs a breakthrough.

The country’s wait for a major champion now stands at 15 years.

Clarke was not unduly concerned last night as he headed out of the media centre to celebrate with fiancee Alison, his family and friends.

He is the new Open champion – set for life.