Clarke slams Adare Manor course
by Brian Murphy, 15 May 2008
Darren Clarke has slammed the course lay-out at Adare Manor where he opened with a disappointing round of 72 in the Irish Open on Thursday.
The Ulsterman complained that the greens were ‘inaccessible’ and the course designers had taken any fun out of playing there by moving the tee boxes.
"The course was ridiculously difficult this afternoon," Clarke told PA. "It was disappointing.
"It's a fantastic design and then you have new tees and all of a sudden we are hitting three-irons to flags that are completely inaccessible.
"It takes all the fun away and it takes the ability to shoot a good score away. People come in to watch us make birdies and unfortunately that's just not happening.
"The greens are rock hard. They are designed to be hit by much shorter clubs than we were having to hit.
"I'm very pleased with my score. I could have let it get away from me and I didn't," Clarke added.