Dubai: If golf ever needed a poster boy to show that perseverance pays off it wouldn’t have to look much further than Darren Clarke.

The Northern Irishman won the 2011 Open Championship, his first Major in 54 attempts, at the age of 42.

That his long-awaited victory came just five years after his wife Heather passed away from cancer also makes his story all the more heartening.

It is no surprise then, that the Mena Golf Tour chose Clarke to be their patron in 2015, and that developing players will now use the 49-year-old’s guest appearance in this week’s Dubai Creek Open as an opportunity to glean advice.

‘Never give up’ and ‘keep trying’ might be the obvious lines of encouragement to come from these interactions, but ironically, Clarke too could benefit from his own pep talk now more than ever.

Since his captaincy of Europe ended in defeat to America in last year’s Ryder Cup, he hasn’t made a single cut in 12 European Tour appearances this season.

“In terms of my own game, I don’t know …” he said, when asked to comment on his form. “I played OK in quite a few tournaments but sometimes golf goes for you and sometimes it doesn’t.

“It’s all about patience, you’ve got to keep putting yourself there and keep trying to do what you’re doing and believing that at some stage it’s going to be your turn.

“Stubbornness has been my biggest quality. I had chances up and down, but you’ve just got to keep playing because in our sport you never know what’s around the corner.”

Asked if personal tragedy had made him all the more determined, he said: “I don’t think it helped in any way shape or form. Golf just is what it is. I had some tough times and good, but that’s life, golf is our job and yes it’s a career but it’s also a game and there’s more important things sometimes.”

So, without all these experiences would he be more inclined to give up now? “It makes no difference, giving up is never an option.”

On his Ryder Cup defeat, he added: “You never go into something that you’ve put your heart and soul into for a couple of years expecting to come out on the losing side, you’re never going to be quite happy about that. I was annoyed about it for quite some time and I probably still am.”

Is that what’s holding him back? “No, I don’t think so now. At the time I thought long and hard about if I could have done anything differently, but I still can’t come up with anything. Unfortunately, the American guys played a little bit better and that’s professional sport.

“My own game was on hold for the most part of those two years, but I turned 49 a couple of weeks, so I have a year to go before the Champions Tour over in America and I want to play, so to come out here and compete again with these kids is great. I just want to go out, play, and enjoy myself.

With Americans having won the last three Majors, he went on to deny the US had the upper hand ahead of next year’s Ryder Cup.

“There’s a long way to go before you can say that. They have a very strong batch of kids coming through but it’s about who holes putts that week.

“Momentum shifts all the time and during the week things chop and change and there’s lots of variables.

“We’ve got some brilliant players too and I’m sure the next one in Paris will be just as close.”