THE SENIOR OPEN PRESENTED BY ROLEX

July 21, 2022

Darren Clarke

PGA Centenary at Gleneagles

Quick Quotes

Q. 65, only one person better. You have to feel really good about your position?

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, played nicely today. I played smart today. I had my old caddie on the bag this week which has been great. Coming off last week when I was so disappointed to play as poorly as I did as St Andrews, worked really hard. Kept trying to get ready for this week and played a lot better today.

Q. How much does it help having played Bell Scottish Opens here in the past? How much can you go back in your memory?

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, we got a couple of new tees. You played back in those days, as well. It's a long time ago for us old guys. There's places where you can't hit and obviously there's places where you can.

I think back in the day, I probably hit it in most of the places you can't hit it. You learn a golf course better from maybe not playing so well than when you're hitting it on the fairways and greens.

Today I played pretty smart. I tried to leave myself on the right side of the flag most of the time today which I did. A few other chances, misjudged the speed a few times. Out there there's some quick putts and really slow ones going uphill into a little bit of grain, but overall pretty pleased with the way I played.

Q. Little bit of weather coming in this weekend, probably going to play in some wet stuff. How does that suit you?

DARREN CLARKE: I grew up in it. It should be all right. But you know, I think Gleneagles does such a wonderful job with the golf course betting it ready, it would be a shame to get that much rain but a little wit 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.