Clarke back in the swing

After a longer than planned absence from tournament golf, Darren Clarke makes his first appearance of the year in this week's South African Open at the East London club. Clarke yesterday enjoyed the luxury of an early practice round over the highly-rated course, all of which was in contrast to the fate of Justin Rose.

Although he finished runnerup to Adam Scott in last weekend's Alfred Dunhill championship, Rose is not guaranteed a place in the field at East London. The usual rule of the top-10 finishers, who are not already exempt, gaining entry into the following tournament didn't fully apply to the co-sanctioned European Tour/Sunshine Tour event and, so, Rose - along with 258 other players - will have to go through the prequalifying tournament lottery over two courses today.

"I think it's a little unfair because the rule still applies for South African players but not European Tour players," remarked Rose. Although he has effectively secured his tour card for next season in one fell swoop, Rose - who finished fourth in the British Open as a 17-year-old amateur and then suffered 21 consecutive missed cuts on turning professional - returns to basics at the King Williams course today where, among those also attempting to pre-qualify, will be Jim Carvill.

In fact, there are a total of three Irish players seeking to qualify for the tournament. Peter Lawrie and Raymond Burns will be playing in today's pre-qualifying tournament at the West Bank course. In all, 31 players from the 259 competitors at the two venues will make it into the tournament proper.

Clarke, Paul McGinley - who remained in 13th place in Europe's Ryder Cup table after his top-20 finish in the Alfred Dunhill - and David Higgins are all in the field, as is South African-based James Loughnane.

Clarke also intends to play in next week's Dimension Data Pro-Am, an event which is not part of the European Tour. He was forced to withdraw from defending his Accenture world matchplay title in Australia earlier this month due to family circumstances. He also missed the elite-field Mercedes Championship in Hawaii which was confined to last year's winners on the US Tour.

Despite not playing tournament golf since early December, Clarke yesterday moved up one place in the world rankings from 12th to 11th. Padraig Harrington, who resumes playing next month, also moved up one place to 23rd. And McGinley was another to improve on his position by one, from 71st to 70th. McGinley needs to break into the world's top 50 by the conclusion of the Dubai Desert Classic in March if he is to secure a first-time invite to play in the US Masters.

Meanwhile, the European Tour yesterday announced the inclusion of a new tournament in this season's calendar. For the first time, the tour will visit Argentina for the Open de Argentina, a co-sanctioned event with 50 per cent of players from the European Tour and half from the Argentinian Federation. It will be played at Buenos Aires from March 29th-April 1st.

This brings the European Tour's international schedule to 49 tournaments in 25 countries.