WGC AMERICAN EXPRESS CHAMPIONSHIP

November 11, 2000

Darren Clarke

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, I hit a lot of good shots and didn't quite convert them. Then I made a couple of mistakes and paid the penalty. That's the course.

DARREN CLARKE: No, I'm out there trying to do as best I can. I can't afford to worry about anybody else. But Lee's 68, obviously he's played very -- really well. I can only try and make my birdies, and I wasn't able to do that today.

DARREN CLARKE: That's the same sort of thing, again, people have asked me all week. But, you know, whoever comes out on top, they'll deserve to be No. 1. Lee's had a fantastic season. I've played not too bad a couple of occasions. We're not going to fall out over it.

DARREN CLARKE: I think it means a bit -- I don't even know what he said. But I don't know, we both like to finish No. 1. It would give each other a few rights to slag each other off for a year. So...

DARREN CLARKE: I can just do the same as I've done all week. I have to go out and play, and play as well as I can. I gave myself a lot of opportunities today, and hopefully I'll do the same tomorrow and it will be nice to get a few of them.

DARREN CLARKE: Not what I was looking for, but I hit the ball okay. I hit a lot of good shots and didn't knock the putts in; didn't take my chances. As a consequence, I shot a 74.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah. I made a couple mistakes. I missed a couple of flags on the wrong side. And playing Valderrama, you can't afford to do that.

DARREN CLARKE: I was trying to do the best I could do, and I started to struggle a little bit around the back nine. So I had more important things to worry about than what Lee was doing.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, that's the way it appears at the moment. But this course can produce a lot of surprises, and there's time for one or two yet.

DARREN CLARKE: Same as I've done all week: Go out and play, and hopefully play well.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, you got the run of the ball. You can make a few birdies out here. If you don't, you make a few mistakes and you make bogeys. Unfortunately, it was the latter today.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, it's all going to be very exciting tomorrow, I think.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, I played okay. Gave myself opportunities and didn't take them. I missed a couple of flags on the wrong side, as I've just said. I paid the penalty for that today.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, today I was hitting the ball fine. I was striking the ball well enough. I had a lot of chances around the front and didn't take them. I hit a fair tee shot on 11 and deserved to make bogey there really. But it was a silly 3-putt from 25 feet. And a lovely shot into the next. Then the next hole, where I sort of lost momentum totally. I hit a lovely 2-iron down the middle of the fairway. It kept trickling, trickling, trickling down to the right, 20 yards down to the right. So instead of drawing a punchy little shot, I now had to hit a 6-iron up over the tree. Had a lovely shot; just caught the left side of the green, kept it left, down in the rough, and didn't get up-and-down, and that sort of lost what I was doing at that stage. No matter how I tried, I couldn't get it back again.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, probably a little bit. But that's to say I'm more concerned with how I play than anybody else. It was in my own hands at the start of this week, how I played, if I played well or not. Unfortunately, I haven't done that.

DARREN CLARKE: No, not really. No, I was fine. I was just trying to hit my shots. I still have to hit the fairways and hit the greens.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, it was fine. I just didn't quite get the run of the ball.

DARREN CLARKE: It looked good -- (inaudible). I had a nice shot, then I misread the putt and made a horseshoe there. But sort of summed up my day.