DARREN CLARKE PULLED out of the upcoming US Open earlier this week.

But the British Open champion insists he’ll be ready to go when the Irish Open is staged at his home course in Portrush next month.

“Everyone who knows me knows that I have been looking forward to the Irish Open on my home course ever since it was announced, in January, that it was coming back here,” Clarke told reporters at an open day yesterday.

“Now the fact this injury means I won’t play officially until I tee up on the Dunluce Course in a month’s time means I will really be raring to go. Everyone in Northern Ireland is counting down the hours for this championship to start, and I’m one of them.”

Clarke has been bothered by the injury for the past month, at the Masters and during the BMW Championship last week, and has decided he won’t travel to San Francisco.

The 43-year-old, who has failed to make a cut all year,  has also pulled out of the Nordea Masters in Sweden in a bid to be right for the defence of his title at Royal Lytham in July.

In The Swing: Donald back on top of the world