GOLF/EUROPEAN TOUR:DARREN CLARKE will be hoping for his recent revival to continue and to avoid a repeat of last year's misfortune in the Austrian Open near Vienna this week.
Twelve months ago Clarke was in the midst of the worst slump of his career, missing cuts with monotonous regularity on his way from 35th in the world at the start of the year to outside the top 200 at the end of it.
It was a run not helped by extraordinary pieces of bad luck, like the one he suffered at the Fontana Golf Club, when he stood in the middle of the 18th fairway on Friday afternoon needing just a par five to make his first cut since early February.
But on a sweltering afternoon the Ulsterman was amazingly caught up in a passing squall that turned his approach shot from straightforward to treacherous, and the Ryder Cup star duly found the water guarding the front of the green to card a bogey six and make another early exit.
"It was a perfect four-iron when I got there, but by the time I hit it (against the wind) I was jumping all over a three-iron off a downhill lie," Clarke recalled.
"That's why I pushed it a bit. But I wasn't going to lay up to the left; I'm thinking I have to make birdie to make the cut."
A year on, Clarke arrives in Austria buoyed by finishing fourth in the Wales Open at Celtic Manor on Sunday, a result that lifted him to 104th in the world rankings.
The 39-year-old also won his first European Tour title for almost five years at the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai in late April, and he is so determined to get back to his best and qualify for the Ryder Cup team that he skipped Monday's US Open qualifier at Walton Heath to concentrate on his European Tour performances.
Richard Green returns to Austria to defend the title he won in a play-off last year and in the process attempt to become only the second Australian - after Greg Norman - to win the same tournament in consecutive years.
Coincidentally, Green won his first European Tour title in a play-off with Norman and Ian Woosnam in the 1997 Dubai Desert Classic, but had gone a decade without adding to that triumph before beating France's Jean-François Remesy on the first extra hole 12 months ago.
"I feel like I am in the prime of my career now and I always felt I would win again and get the monkey off my back," said Green.
"Now I am looking forward to going back to Austria and the Fontana Golf Club in particular to defend my title."
Another Australian, Scott Strange, the wire-to-wire winner in Wales last week, is also taking part, along with the home favourite Markus Brier.
AUSTRIAN OPEN
Course:Fontana GC, Oberswaltersdorf, outside Vienna. Opened in 1997 and already considered the best in Austria, it is tree-lined and borders a large lake.
Length:7,066 yards. Par: 71
Prizemoney:€1.3 million, €216,660 for the winner
Field:156
Irish in the field:Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell, Gary Murphy and David Higgins
Defending champion:Australian lefty Richard Green grabbed the lead in round two and eventually beat Jean-François Remesy at the first play-off hole.
On TV: Sky Sports 2, 10am-noon, 3pm-5pm.
Weather:Rain on day one
