July 2022, Clarke won his first senior major championship at The Senior Open Championship, played at Gleneagles in Scotland. He won by one shot over Pádraig Harrington. He also became the fourth player in history to win both The Open Championship and The Senior Open Championship. Ryder Cup and other team golf Clarke has represented Ireland as both an amateur and as a professional, most notably at the World Cup and Alfred Dunhill Cup. He was a member of five consecutive European Ryder Cup teams in 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2006, winning on four occasions and was also appointed a non-playing vice captain by Colin Montgomerie in 2010 and by Paul McGinley in 2014. Clarke's most notable appearance at the Ryder Cup was in 2006, six weeks after the death of his wife Heather. Heather had loved the Ryder Cup and encouraged Darren to compete in it, so he made himself available for selection. European captain Ian Woosnam chose Clarke as one of his two wild cards, and he contributed three points from three matches to Europe's victory, and was embraced by members of the European and U.S. teams after he finished the tournament. Clarke was named as the 2016 Ryder Cup captain on 18 February 2015. He was selected by a five-man selection panel consisting of the last three Ryder Cup captains: Paul McGinley, José María Olazábal, Colin Montgomerie, another ex-Ryder Cup player David Howell and the European Tour chief executive George O'Grady. Personal life Clarke's grandfather Ben played football for Portadown, Sheffield United, Exeter City and Carlisle United and earned two amateur caps for the Ireland national football team (1882–1950) in 1934. His father Godfrey played for Glenavon. He met his wife Heather in a nightclub in Portrush, County Antrim, and they married in March 1996. The couple had two sons, Tyrone and Conor, and the family lived at Sunningdale, Berkshire, UK. In 2005 and 2006 he missed several tournaments to care for his wife, who had been diagnosed with both primary breast cancer in December 2001, then, in 2004, with secondary breast cancer. Heather Clarke died on Sunday 13 August 2006 at 39 years of age, in the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. Clarke's friend Paul McGinley immediately announced his own withdrawal from the PGA Championship starting in Medinah, Illinois. In a statement McGinley said, "Our two families are very much intertwined, obviously me and Darren, but