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THE COMMERCIAL BANK QATAR MASTERSJanuary 24, 2007Darren ClarkeDOHA, QATAR RODDY WILLIAMS: Darren, happy new year to you, and your first European Tour start of 2007. First of all, how important is it for you to get off to a good start this week. DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, well I played a few weeks ago in the Royal Trophy in Bangkok so I got back into the rhythm of things there. I'm playing this week, next week and Malaysia. So I have three tournaments in a row that you know, I want to get back trying to compete again. My game was a bit rusty in Bangkok, which wasn't surprising because I played five tournaments since last July, so I'm obviously short of competition, but I managed to do reasonably okay there, so I'm looking forward to trying to get myself back into position to challenge again the next three weeks if I can. RODDY WILLIAMS: Last year was obviously a very difficult year for you, so many reasons, how important is it for you now to sort of get started again and get competing and as you know that you can? DARREN CLARKE: Well, it's a new start for me again and I've got to get back into my job and I want to do that. I want to try and get back to competing regularly. You know, I'm 42nd now in the World Rankings through having not played, and I want to try and get myself back up that ranking again. And the only way I can do is it is from playing well and hopefully that's what I'm going to do. RODDY WILLIAMS: How did you feel on the course today? DARREN CLARKE: The course is not too bad. I've been doing quite a lot of work with Ewen Murray, my coach, this week, but still rusty. It's going to take me a little bit of time to get that competitive edge again. Q. With your children, will you be having a limited playing schedule this year? DARREN CLARKE: No, I'll still play a pretty full schedule, but I'll be a little bit more selective of where I play due to half-term and kids' holidays. But I still plan to play quite a lot. Q. How did you find the course? Last year I remember you had some complaints like about narrow fairways and so forth. What's it like it time? DARREN CLARKE: No, the course is in fantastic. It's in great shape, a couple of new tees, tees last year that we didn't use, the tees on No. 11 and No. 12, and I believe we are going to use the back tees on No. 8 as well this year. The course is tough. It's in fantastic shape, and you're going to have to play very well to put some good scores in. RODDY WILLIAMS: Looking at the strength of the field this week, it's probably the strongest field in the ten-year history of this event, you obviously enjoy playing against the world's best players, looking forward to that challenge this week? DARREN CLARKE: Lots of World Ranking points which is great. Any time we get a field as strong as this on a European Tour event, there's a lot of points in offer. And that's why I think if we get a lot of the top-ranked world in the players playing, that's why you get a lot of the rest of the guys coming along as well because you know you can make considerable leaps up those rankings if you do well. Q. How important has golf been to get over the pain that you suffered last year? DARREN CLARKE: Not particularly important. I've got to deal with my other issues in the way that I have done but the golf as been a little bit of a get away for me. But at the end of the day, I've got my two boys to look after so I can't really get away from the reality of everything. So it haven't really been an escape; it's just something that I want to do and I want to get back. Q. And about the US PGA tour, are you planning to go there and trying again? DARREN CLARKE: Well, I'm still a member, so I'm committed to play 15 tournaments over there and that's going to be quite difficult for me. I'm going to have to try to squeeze them in way or other, so I'm still going to try to keep my membership there as well if I can. Q. Ernie has been talking about the difficulty of last year, how he's really taking a step on getting to the top again; how intent are you, do you feel like you have another five or ten years or whatever, and has that time come where you want to have a go at Tiger? DARREN CLARKE: I don't really know, but in all due respect, I think I had a bit of a tougher year than Ernie did, so I don't really know. I don't really know. RODDY WILLIAMS: Thanks very much and good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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