Golf Paparazzi?

Apparently, Darren Clarke had been dating a famous UK financer's former/separated wife for a few months following his wife Heather's passing from cancer last year. Also, the couple apparently broke up over the holiday season, according to the girlfriend. A detailed account of the break up was published in the Daily Mail in UK not too long ago.

Despite better knowledge, I read the article. I could not believe that this kind of private business would be made public. Being famous is one thing, and being in love is another. Both should rarely, if ever, overlap. In Darren's case, though, it has. It made me realize some things. First among those is that golfers in the UK are apparently a lot more famous public figures than they are here in the States. Sure, Tiger being a daddy made headlines, but Darren Clarke isn't THAT big. He's Davis Love III big. That means that the culture of celebrity in the UK is radically different than that of the States because there is no way that if DL3 and his wife split up that it would make the papers in that kind of detail. Life seems a little bit more private here and that's something I value. Of course, then again, we do have the PATRIOT Act.