Darren Clarke is not competing in the DP World Championship this year but was in Dubai on Wednesday as part of the Host Cities summit held at Fairmont, The Palm.
Sport360’s Reem Abulleil spoke to the popular Ulsterman about his predictions for the tournament and looking ahead to next year’s Ryder Cup.
Danny Willett is chasing Rory in the Race to Dubai rankings, how do you think this will pan out?
It’s going to be very exciting I think on Sunday. I think Rory has been here practicing for a week I believe, he’s got a very good record around there so I think he’ll be a tough man to beat.
What do you think of both their seasons?
Obviously Danny has played fantastic, Rory as well, but he’s got himself injured and he’s been fighting back from that. But they’ve both had wonderful seasons, as have a lot of other guys, so it’ll be very close.
And Henrik Stenson going for the hat-trick in Dubai…
Henrik is just a world-class player all the time and he’s been playing very well of late as well so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s up there.
Darren Clarke and the Ryder Cup in the house #hostcities pic.twitter.com/ybmafKn44M
— Reem Abulleil (@ReemAbulleil) November 18, 2015
Justin Rose again, he’s here and he’s going to be very close. I think we’re in for a very very exciting week.
What do the players need to look out for to win at the Earth Course?
Keep it out of the bunkers. The bunkers are very strategically placed. If you hit it in some of those off the tees you can pay a big penalty, so there’s a lot of chipping the golf ball and making sure that you miss the greens in the right side to the pin location because you’re much better off missing it just off the side of the green than you are leaving yourself a 40-50 foot putt. So it’s knowing the golf course and knowing when you can afford to miss.
Do you miss not playing the DP World Tour Championship this year?
Yes, obviously I prefer to playing it but I’ve got much other stuff going on right now with Ryder Cup and EurAsia Cup so it’s fine.
Do you have time to work on your game with all your Ryder Cup captain responsibilities?
I try to work on my game but it’s quite difficult because of all the other commitments. My mind wanders to stuff that I have to do and decisions that I have to make.
But last time I was here, I played in Ras Al Khaimah a couple of weeks ago and I finished second so that was very good. We’ll see. It’s quite difficult because I’m still a professional golfer and I still want to play well so it’s quite difficult trying to find a balance.
What are you enjoying the most at the moment in terms of your captaincy duties?
There’s a lot of decisions to be made on all sort of different things. But being able to pick the clothes what the guys are going to wear.
GALLERY: @DarrenClarke60 tries out at @AlZorahGolfClub in #Ajman: https://t.co/hEnGsMX7WV pic.twitter.com/BaarRij7Er
— Sport360° (@Sport360) November 19, 2015
That’s a pretty interesting part of it. There’s many many things going on so afterwards is probably a better time to ask.
You’ve got three Captain’s picks, what will you be looking for when it comes to those wildcards?
They all need to be playing well but I think the wildcards I will select them based on the formation of the rest of the team. If there’s a lot of rookies on the team then obviously I’ll look towards experience. If not then I will try and balance the team out.
If there’s a guy that I think is going to be suited to a fourball play that will suit one guy that’s in the team… there’s many different reasons why the wildcards I would pick certain people. Obviously there’s going to be a lot of thought into it.
Which of the young players have impressed you this season?
Matt Fitzpatrick had a wonderful year. Really trained on and improved a lot. Danny Willet has improved massively as well.
Obviously he’s got a chance to win the Race to Dubai. There’s so many of the young kids who have played really really well. Bernd Weisberger has played really well. There’s a lot of them.
