There are some benefits to be gleaned from having a home, even of the temporary type, in Florida. It meant that Darren Clarke, despite finishing his interest in the Players' Championship over four hours earlier than he would have preferred, could jump into the car and head down I-95 to be reunited with his family.
However, for Clarke, much of the journey is likely to have been occupied with thoughts of what might have been and might be. For, with the US Masters at Augusta National just over a week away, the 35-year-old knows that he is close to getting his game to where he wants it, but also that some small things - especially approach shots with short irons - are not as sharp as they should be.
On Saturday evening, he confessed to feeling like "beating my head against the clubhouse wall", because of the frustration in failing to convert the chances being created. Yesterday, at least there was the comfort of negotiating a way around the Sawgrass course without a single bogey, his final round 69 for one-under-par 287 featuring three birdies and 15 pars.
One of those pars came at the fourth where he hit his tee-shot into water, but after taking a penalty drop he managed to successfully get up and down from 150 yards, hitting his approach to 10 feet and holing the par putt.
In terms of challenging for the tournament, the damage had been done in previous rounds and particularly in Saturday's third round when he dropped four shots in the last five holes.
"Scoring wise, this was a lot better," he conceded after his final round. "But I made so many bogeys this week from the middle of the fairway, with eight irons, nine irons, wedges and sand wedges in my hand . . . and I can't afford to do that. I've driven the ball well but then threw away shots on the so-called easier holes."
He added: "My putting has been better in the past couple of weeks, here and at Bay Hill. I've tightened things up there. But this is a tough golf course and you only have to hit marginal shots to pay a heavy penalty. You can't take anything away from this place (in terms of your game) because you can hit some good shots in (to the green) and you don't know what's going to happen to the ball."
Clarke doesn't play in the BellSouth in Atlanta this week, instead opting to play in the Tavistock Cup at Lake Nona in Orlando today and tomorrow and then completing his build-up to the Masters by preparing at Isleworth, where he has Tiger Woods among his neighbours. His plan is to arrive in Augusta on Sunday night, with a first practice round on Monday next.
