Dunhill Links Championship Irish players: Metaphorically, Darren Clarke may be one of the hottest players in golf just now; yesterday, on the range at the Old Course, with a left-to-right wind seeking to play havoc with any fine-tuning players were contemplating, he could only wrap his arms around his body and, before heading off to do some gym work in the hotel (remember, he's on a new fitness regime), whisper, "I'm cold."

Cold it was yesterday, and the forecast is for more of the same over the next four days - with possibly stronger winds, as if they weren't strong enough. Given that the ball was moving in some instances on the 11th green in practice yesterday, that won't appeal to most of the players.

Des Smyth, who has played in considerably warmer climes in the US this season, remarked that he had worn a sweater only once this year, while Peter Lawrie observed, "It's a place where you certainly need to pack the tea and sandwiches into your bag."

Clarke's win in the NEC Invitational a week after missing the cut in the US PGA catapulted him into the chief pursuer of Ernie Els in the race to top this year's European Tour money list and, since returning to Europe, he has won the Northern Ireland Masters in Clandeboye - a Challenge Tour event - and finished fifth last week in the German Masters.

"In Germany, I only played so-so. I had a lot of movement left-to-right on the ball, and that was something I had to sort out."

So Clarke spent a considerable amount of time on the range on Tuesday afternoon.

"I must have made four calls to Butch (Harmon) inside half an hour," remarked Clarke, who had Butch's son Claude in attendance.

"He knows my swing so well that I was able to describe what I was doing and he knew exactly what I needed to work on."

The upshot was that he "got it figured out", and whatever glitch had crept into Clarke's swing has been eradicated as he prepares to renew a love affair with links golf that was first honed at Royal Portrush.

"It's good to be back to links golf, I love it . . . even if the forecast is horrendous."

While Clarke's an old hand at playing the Old Course, Lawrie is making his competitive debut. "I remember coming here about 10 years ago, when I was playing on an Irish amateur team at Montrose and we called in to have a look at the place, but this is my first time playing it," remarked the Dubliner, who has missed the cut in his last four tournaments.

"I just haven't got things going in recent weeks, and possibly played on weeks when it would have been wiser to rest. I just haven't got into any rhythm, kind of went off the boil.

"But you can get stretches like that and hopefully I can get off to a good start and get things up and running again."