Darren Clarke weaved some magic with his new broomstick putter as he rolled in two eagles during a round of 65 to share the lead after day one of the Chubb Classic.
Clarke, who is using a new LAB putter with centre shaft and zero torque designed by Adam Scott also carded five birdies to cancel out two dropped shots before he eagled the 15th and 18th holes to share top spot with Michael Wright as he chases his first individual Champions Tour win since the 2022 Senior Open.
“I played obviously with Thomas Björn out here on the Champions Tour now. I see how well Thomas putts, Bernhard, Vijay, all the guys. I got help from Thomas. He spent some time with me on the putting green in Hawaii, showing me some of the technique and what you should be doing,” said Clarke who ranked 5th in putting after round one after switching to the long putter.
“When I’ve played with guys that use the long putter before, I watch them and their ball rolls really well. I thought, well, I didn’t move to the long putter because I had the yips or anything. I just moved because I thought it was a better roll on the golf ball.”
Despite seemingly finding a new lease of life on the greens, the 2011 Open champion knows that things could turn the other way so he isn’t committing to any long term relationship just yet.
“It’s only one tournament and one round. It could go flying through the air at some stage, but at the moment it’s behaving itself.
“But it’s exciting to be able to stand there and hole a couple of putts because I haven’t done that for a few years, so it’s nice.”
The Dungannon man admits that he has been working tirelessly on all aspects of his game over the last few years particularly his putting which has often been labelled as his achilles heel especially when he was in his pomp.
“Putting is fickle. Golf is fickle. That’s the way it is. Sometimes the ball goes in, sometimes it doesn’t. The thing is I’ve worked really hard since I got on the Champions Tour. I still work as hard as I ever did. I work on my stroke, everything, pictures, numbers, all the machines look really good. Just haven’t made anything. I just thought it was time to try something different, and hopefully it keeps on working.”
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