Darren didn’t have time to dream

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Darren Clarke didn’t wake up on Monday morning after the night before to find he had not been dreaming.

Darren Clarke, unlike many of his processors, didn’t wake up on Monday morning after the night before to find he had not been dreaming.

He never had the chance to dream because he didn’t shut his eyes at any time in the long, and happy celebrations that were still on the go when Monday morning arrived and he was advised that it was time to make his way back to Royal St George’s to pose for pictures and hold a press conference before he flew home. .

He “sort of knew all along” that he was in fact the 2011 Open Champion and the Claret Jug by his side did in fact have his name engraved on it

“I’ve looked at the trophy all night and sort of semi figured out it’s mine,” said Clarke, looking bleary-eyed and heavy lidded.

“I probably won’t get any sleep until tomorrow at some stage. Have to enjoy it when you can.

“I had quite a few pints and quite a few glasses of red wine and it all continued until about 30 minutes ago.

“It’s been a very good night.”

Nothing, though, had been poured into the trophy.

“I’m a little bit of a traditionalist. I feel a bit funny about putting stuff in the Claret Jug that shouldn’t be in there.

“There’s nothing in it as yet, but that may not be the case as the week goes by!”

“I have 294 (text) messages and the writing is far too small for me to look at them in this state, so I may look at them tomorrow at some stage and figure them out.”

Before the celebrations got into full flow, Clarke said, he had telephoned his sons Tyrone (12) and Conor (10) in Portrush, where he recently moved to recently.

He lost his wife, Heather, and they a mother to breast cancer in 2006 – just six weeks before the Ryder Cup in which he was unbeaten – and Clarke, currently engaged to be married to Alison Campbell, a model agency manager and former Miss Northern Ireland, has dedicated his first major title to them.

“Tyrone was very pleased, very proud – he said he was going to tell everybody his dad was Open Champion.

“Conor wanted to know what he could spend all the money on.

“So it was a huge difference between the two, but they were both very happy.”

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