Hi Everyone, sorry I’ve not checked in for a while but I’ve been having a very busy time of late.

Firstly, big congratulations to Coleraine Academical Institution who won the final of the Darren Clarke Schools Golf League in Ireland last week. It was a really closely fought match against Holy Cross Strabane, and was three and a half matches each but Coleraine came through on the amount of holes won. These young kids are just fantastic and raise an enormous amount of money for charity and this year it’s going to Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

I went home to Ireland for a week to check up on how the new house was getting along and then after that it was down to Celtic Manor for the Wales Open.

I played two pretty good opening rounds there but encountered serious frustration on the greens on Saturday and Sunday so one of my putters unfortunately came to grief. On a more positive note I finished in a tie for 39th and the ball striking was good.

It was then off down the road to Sunningdale for the International Final Qualifying for the Open Championship. I shot rounds of 68 and 69 leaving me on three under par which just wasn’t good enough so I’m disappointed not to be going to St Andrews in July. Seven under par ended up playing off for one spot so the scoring was extremely low – with Shane Lowry and Monty both shooting 62 in one of their rounds.

I’m now in Portugal for the Estoril Open de Portugal and hoping for a good week here. Yes folks I made the cut!! After an infuriating first day I managed to get back into the action and shot five under on the Friday and am hoping for a good weekend. I’ve not a new caddy on the bag, Brendan, which is working out really well and I’ve got some new shafts in my irons which are True Temper Monaco’s – they’re heavier than the previous ones and they feel great.

Although I’ve a week off next week I’m going to Switzerland to play in a  Pro-am for one of my sponsors – Audermars Piguet – makers of those beautiful watches – so that’ll be a good few days. I fly there on Monday, play on the Tuesday and then have a dinner on the Tuesday night and fly back on Wednesday.

I then go straight over to Northern Ireland with the boys. Tyrone is starting at Dalriada School in September so he’ll be meeting all the teachers and the other first form pupils who will be starting at the same time.

On Thursday I’m attending the media launch for the North of Ireland Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush and then go to Belfast and after that I return to London with the boys.

On Monday I return to Belfast for the Miss Northern Ireland event which my girlfriend, Alison is running, so I’ll be there supporting her. And then it’s off to Munich for the BMW International Open which is always a great event.

Well I think that’s just about it for the time being and I’ll report in again soon. Darren.