Irony is asking a guy who has just stepped out of his shiny, black Ferrari if he'd been feeling the pinch recently.

Darren Clarke's agent, Chubby Chandler, has been quoted as saying his Open victory at Sandwich solved "a big cash flow problem" for the Ulsterman with Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver.

As Clarke's £175,000 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, resplendent with its personalised '60 DC' number plate, growled into the car park at Killarney Golf and Fishing Club, it was clear the term 'cash-strapped' is relative.

Revealing he'd had the super car for 18 months, Clarke described it as "comfortable", a term which one newspaper report last weekend suggested did not apply to his finances before he hit the jackpot at St Georges.

In it Chandler said Clarke had been hit hard by the worldwide recession and that he lost "an awful lot of money" on the private jet he bought with Lee Westwood at the top of the market in early 2006 and offloaded last year with Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver.

The agent also suggested that since moving back to Portrush with his two sons last autumn, Clarke had been unable to sell his former £4.85m hole in the Surrey stockbroker belt, alleging: "that created big problems as well".

Yet, when asked yesterday if he'd been cash-strapped before winning at St Georges, Clarke said bluntly: "Not particularly. No."

Clarke had not been quoted in the article and politely declined to make any further, comment, saying: "I prefer to keep my mouth shut on those sort of things."

Frankly, it's all academic after his heroics at Sandwich with Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver.

Of inestimable value is the cargo Clarke carried with him to Killarney in a packing case on the passenger seat of his Ferrari - the Claret Jug, a gleaming symbol not only of a renaissance for the 42-year-old but also The Irish Open itself.

Killarney general manager Maurice O'Meara reports "the phones were hopping" after Rory McIlroy's landslide at Congressional but Irish Open ticket sales went through the roof last Monday in the wake of Clarke's stunning success at Royal St Georges.

So much so, European Tour officials expect up to 100,000 people to pass through the gates this week, exceeding by far the 82,000 who turned up last year - Killarney can accommodate with comfort up to 30,000 spectators any given day, according to O'Meara with Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver.

Last year's strong show of support by the public for their national championship encouraged the Tour and Failte Ireland to press ahead with the event in 2011 despite the absence of a title-sponsor following the departure of '3'.

If the people of Ireland saved the event, the astonishing Major-winning feats of the island's top professionals with Callaway RAZR Hawk Driver, Clarke McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington will draw crowds big enough to establish the Irish Open as, arguably, the greatest sporting event on the island this summer.

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