LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England — There was no defense to Darren Clarke’s opening-round defense of his Open Championship first round Thursday.
Clarke, who at age 42 won his first major championship a year ago when he captured the British Open at Royal St. Georges, carded a 6-over-par 76.
“I don’t think you could publish my thoughts right now,’’ Clarke said. “I’m basically disgusted with myself for shooting 6‑over. That’s not what I was after. I had a lovely tee shot to the first and made a pure putt. From there, it just got worse. I played poorly and I putted worse.
“It was disappointing, because at practice I hit it really, really well. But what can I do? I tried my best on every shot, but unfortunately it wasn’t there again today.’’
Making Clarke’s score look even worse was the fact that the conditions while he played were as benign as they could have been, with a number of players breaking par, including leader Adam Scott, who shot a 6-under-par 64 — 12 shots better than Clarke.
“The Open Championship is the biggest and best tournament in the world,’’ Clarke said. “The course is so benign, if you hit good shots out there you’re going to get rewarded. I wasn’t able to make any putts at all to save anything, to save any momentum or gain any momentum. Bad day at the office.’’
Asked what his thoughts were as he finished his round, Clarke said, “Coming up the last (I was) thinking, ‘How the bleep did I manage to win this last year?’ ’’
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Sergio Garcia was another unhappy camper after shooting a 2-over-par 72 while playing with Tiger Woods and Justin Rose.
“I hit a couple of good shots here and there, but I didn’t feel comfortable all day,’’ Garcia said. “I haven’t felt comfortable all week, just not able to swing the way I know I can and just kind of working with what you have and trying to get around it.
“It’s a shame because it was an ideal day to shoot a decent score and unfortunately my game just wasn’t up to the test.’’
Garcia said it felt “alarming’’ to see so many players in red numbers on the scoreboard while he played his round and failed to convert birdies.
“The day was perfect to do it,’’ he said. “With all the rain we had, the greens were soft and the fairways were soft. So if you’re hitting the ball half-decent you could hit a lot of fairways, you hit a lot of greens, you could attack most of the pins. I just didn’t play well enough, simple as that.’’