Woods hails 'remarkable' Clarke

Tiger Woods hailed Darren Clarke's Ryder Cup performance as "remarkable".

Clarke had made himself available to play as one of Ian Woosnam's wildcard picks just six weeks after losing his wife Heather to breast cancer. And roared on by a passionate home crowd at the K Club, Clarke produced the performance of his life to win three points from his fourball partnership with Lee Westwood and Sunday's singles victory over Zach Johnson.

Woods said: "I thought it was remarkable. For him to come and play is one thing but to play as well as he did, after as much time off as he has taken, it was truly remarkable. It was great to see. I am a big friend of his and to see him go out there and play as well as he did, I am very proud to have been able to see that."

At Hoylake in July Woods was overcome by emotion after winning the Open two months after his father died. On Sunday, the world number one was on hand to comfort and congratulate Clarke on the 16th tee after the Ulsterman had completed his three and two win over Johnson.

Woosnam never had any doubts about selecting Clarke and his best friend Westwood as the two captain's picks and neither man let their team down. Clarke finished with a 100% record and Westwood won four points from five matches.

Woosnam described Clarke's performance and Europe's win as "destiny" and dedicated the triumph to Heather.

Fighting destiny is impossible, but Woods felt America undermined their chances of victory on the greens of the K Club.

"It is pretty simple - they made more putts. They won more matches on 18 than we did and they holed more putts," said Woods.

"Of all the cups I have played in - the Ryder Cup and the President's Cup - the winning team has always holed more putts.

"This year we were in a position to make more putts but we never did."