Exclusive - Clarke: 'It's great to get back winning again'

Darren Clarke has told talkSPORT of his delight at ending his three-year title drought – and has now sets his sights on breaking back into the top 50.

The Northern Irishman overhauled Chris Woods to clinch the Iberdrola Open on Sunday, his first European Tour victory since the KLM Open in August 2008.

And Clarke told Keys & Gray: “It was great to get back winning again. It’s been a while. I got lucky on Sunday, the conditions favoured me and fortunately Chris Wood had a bad day and I managed to get in there and win it."

The victory in Mallorca has pushed the 42-year-old up to 88th in the rankings and Clarke now wants to be back challenging with the the likes of his Ryder Cup team-mate and world number one Lee Westwood.

“I want to get myself back into the big tournaments," he added. "I’ve been up there before, I’ve done it before, and I need to get myself back up there again. If I can start performing more consistently then hopefully that will get me up there.

“I’ve just got to keep working on what I’m doing [to get into the top 50]. It’s nice to win again but I’ve got to get that consistency back.

“You look at my good friend Lee Westwood, the way he performs week in week in out. He’s always up there; he’s always got a chance to win. Consistency is the key to successful golf. Sometimes that’s easier to attain than other times but that’s an aspect I’m working very hard at trying to do.”