Quick 18: Clarke at peace, Open flops and Robson's lilt

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The Claret Jug, bottled water and Guinness -- guess which two were prominent in Darren Clarke's Open celebrations.

1. Why do we love Darren Clarke? He's a man at peace with himself. He accepts what he can't change, changes what he can and rolls with the rest. He loves his pints and wine, his cigars, his cars and doesn't sweat diets because he won't stay on one for very long. He grew up playing rugby, tended bar, has never been afraid to show his emotions or be honest about life and has been a leader in European clubhouses since he was in his 20s. He's 42 going on 14 at times, but he asks only that he does his best -- the same thing he asks of his sons. And he's resilient. His first major at 42. Back in the world's top 30. Be honest. If you could be in Portrush tomorrow for the next celebration, wouldn't you love to sit next to him just to chat?

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2. A Chubby Slam? It's entirely possible. Chubby Chandler's stable at International Sports Management has won the first three majors of the year -- Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy and Clarke --and heads into Atlanta Athletic Club with a chance. What Q-18 loves about this? Chubby has handshake deals -- think Arnold Palmer and the late Mark McCormack -- with Clarke and several others. And, these guys really do hang out and enjoy each other. Wonder if Chub, who also has 2010 Open champ Louis Oosthuizen, is scouting pubs for a celebration in Atlanta?

3. Don't know whether to call it a surprise or what, but watching Phil Mickelson tweak his game and brain and embrace the Open ... well, he had the U.S. going Sunday morning didn't he? If only he had made a half of those short putts he missed last week ... but he didn't. He'll remember his Sunday 30 on the front and those short misses at 11 and 14 that led to a back nine 38. Still.... he may have turned the corner on Open golf.

3. Luke Donald and Lee Westwood missing the cut? Count Q-18 among those who didn't see that one coming. First time world's top two players had missed the cut at the same major and it's another Open miss for English golfers. And G-Mac? Another stunner, although Graeme McDowell admitted his brain wasn't right and he probably needed to talk to Bob Rotella -- Clarke's brain coach -- a bit more. "I've always enjoyed the mental side of the game but I wouldn't say I'm enjoying it so much right now because I'm a bit of a mental case out there,'' McDowell said. "I need an attitude readjustment. I need to care a bit less about the game."

4. If Rotella's phone isn't ringing off the hook, it will be. Q-18 is a huge fan of getting out of your own way and letting it happen, so ... how much simpler does it get than Rotella telling Clarke to "Go unconscious"? Bottom line, Rotella said, "he needed to get all the technical thoughts out of his head. So no more, 'hold the angle,' for example. It's funny, but as soon as he stopped consciously trying to do just that, he began doing it perfectly. It may have felt funny to him but, as he admitted himself, the ball was flying out of the middle of the clubface." Gotta say, same theory works in most jobs.

5. Still wondering about Rickie Fowler? Why? Finally, his clothes, hair and rock-star status took a backseat to his game, his focus, his imagination around the greens and his first top-5 in a major. What brutal conditions? Fowler accepted them and got on with it. His third round 68 was brilliant and ... he's jumping straight back into it at this week's Canadian Open.

6. Which brings us to Rory McIlroy. Q-18 loves his game, the simplicity of his swing and his incredible honesty. We knew this links course wasn't his cup of tea, but it was surprising to hear him say, "I'm not a fan of golf tournaments that the outcome is predicted so much by the weather. It's not my sort of golf," he said. "I obviously have high expectations myself and I know if the weather had have been a little better this week, I probably would have been able to contend a bit more. But it's just the way it goes." Reminder: Open Championships mean bad weather. Embrace it.

7. Most overlooked finishes last week? Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III's tie for ninth and 61-year-old Tom Watson's tie for 22nd. Watson had us going again with his first Open ace -- into the wind no less -- Friday and later said he simply refuses to be a ceremonial player. Love hasn't finished out of the top 12 in his last four events, including a T11 at the U.S. Open. And one more? Tom Lehman, at 52, was also tied for 22nd. Younger guns category? Anthony Kim T5; Sergio Garcia T9.

8. A bonus piece of mental lint ... Royal St. George's was the basis for the golf scenes in "Goldfinger." Ian Fleming was a member at RSG and worked the course into the movie as ... Royal St. Mark's. But, not wanting to overrun the club with a production crew and, presumably Sean Connery fans, the golf scenes were actually shot at Stoke Park in nearby Buckinghamshire. As for Bond's number -- 007? There are a number of tales about that, the most popular being 007 came from the bus route -- London to Canterbury -- which Fleming often found himself a) driving behind on the narrow streets on the way to the course or b) watching from his window in a nearby town.

9. Clarke is supposed to start Weight Watchers this week, but ... "There's five points in a pint of Guinness,'' he said. "It's a bad week for me to start." And, he's not a diet kind of guy. When he mentioned that earlier in the week, he added, "I'll probably get bored with it in a week and give up."

10. Another final-round oops for Dustin Johnson. The guy is a power player and he's got the right man on his bag in Joe LaCava, but ... just ask McIlroy or Mickelson. You have a to lose a few to learn how to win one. McIlroy needed one; Mickelson a few more. But we don't call up that old 0-for-43 stat anymore, do we? He was resilient and Mickelson-Johnson coach Butch Harmon says Johnson is too.

11. Instead of going with tweet of the week, we'll go with favorite lines from Open week: from Bo Van Pelt after a third-round 73: "If you got any quit in you, it's going to be a long day"; Paul Azinger on Robert Rock's rock-star hair: "Wind's blowing close to 20 miles an hour and not a hair on his head is moving. Finest hair in championship golf history"; and finally ... @danjenkinsgd: Love the tone of a fellow traveler, a Brit, on life's inconveniences, big and small: "It's all a trial."

12. Ever wonder what it feels like to lose your grip -- and a lead -- at a big event? Best analogy Q-18 had heard in mumblesome decades of covering the game comes from Brandel Chamblee. The meltdown usually happens at the start of a round and it's a missed putt or an impossibly bad shot. That, Chamblee said, is when you go from being calm and clear to ... "It's like your head is a dryer with a bucket of pennies in there turned on high. And all of a sudden ... it becomes this tussle you can't find your way out of." Instead, Clarke slammed in a par putt -- in a gale -- on the first hole.

13. If you don't remember that Chris Kirk was the guy who shared second with Scott Verplank -- three shots behind winner Mickelson at the Shell Houston Open -- well, now you do. You also know him as the fifth rookie to win on TOUR this season and the Viking Classic champ.

14. Swing coach Pete Cowen on Clarke's gifted swing: "It is like a car. The body action is the engine and the arms, hands and club are the steering column. The secret is the linkage between the two. I'm not saying what that linkage is."

15. One of the charms of the Open Championship is starter Ivor Robson and his prim and proper Scottish "on-the-tee" tenor lilt. Robson, who just worked his 37th Open on the tee, eats only a sandwich and a glass of mineral water the night before an Open round. According to The Independent, it's "all part of his philosophy of 'total and utter concentration.' "

16. Lots of Ulster pride -- and not just in Northern Ireland. The tiny country, whose population is a mere 1.8 million, has now won the last two major championships and three of the last six. But the Ulster reach? Ulster families emigrated to the U.S. in the 18th and 19th centuries and settled predominantly from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Check your family tree. Q-18's great-great grandfather was a dairy farmer near Derry before emigrating to the States.

17. A sign of the times ... er, lockouts. With the NBA lockout in full swing, it would have been a $1 million fine if Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan had played a round at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship with a current NBA player. Seriously. Jordan called to make sure and, yup, a round of golf would be hours of contact, under the media's watchful eye.

18. And we leave you with this quiet moment for Clarke in the locker room Sunday night. Q-18 has seen moments like these before and they never get old. http://yfrog.com/kj4nnvjj .

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM and can be reached at melaniehauser@gmail.com. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR. Follow her on Twitter @melaniehauser.