Clarke makes welcome return

He could do with some good tidings. The past few weeks have been frustrating, to say the least, for Darren Clarke. In what should have been one of his busiest spells on tour this season, the Ulsterman - hampered by a hamstring injury - has suffered a run of missed cut-withdrawal-withdrawal-no show but is expected to return to tournament play at this week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Clarke didn't play in last week's Irish Open on the advice of his physio Jonathan Shrewsbury, so that he could receive further treatment on the hamstring and wouldn't aggravate the problem. He is expected to play in the PGA, the flagship tournament on the European Tour, which has a prize fund of €4.35 million, with €725,000 to the winner.

Five of the top-10 players in the latest official world rankings - Ernie Els, Henrik Stenson, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Luke Donald - are included in the field. The only member of last year's triumphant European Ryder Cup team who is not playing is Sergio Garcia.

Padraig Harrington, seeking back-to-back wins after his triumph in the Irish Open, and with the incentive of that €1 million bonus should he win, heads an eight-strong Irish contingent that also includes Clarke, Paul McGinley, Simon Thornton, Damien McGrane, Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy.

Clarke has fallen to 87th in the latest world rankings and, while he has rescheduled his mid-season campaign in order to play two events on the US Tour (at the Buick Open and the AT&T National) at the expense of the French Open and the European Open, a return to competitive action at Wentworth is important as he seeks to reverse his slide in the rankings.

As things stand, Clarke isn't qualified for the US Open at Oakmont, but he is entered for the US Open international qualifying at Walton Heath in a fortnight's time. While his build-up to Wentworth has been anything but smooth, at least Clarke has contended there in the past: he was runner-up in 2000, and also had top-10 finishes in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

Des Smyth, meanwhile, will be in action in the Seniors PGA Championship at Kiawah Island this week where Dave Stockton, the US Ryder Cup captain when the match was staged there, will be joined by American members of that team Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Wayne Levi, Mark O'Meara and Lanny Wadkins.

A number of European players who played in that Ryder Cup will also be playing: Seve Ballesteros, who made his Champions Tour debut last week, Mark James and Sam Torrance.