He performed with courage and grace at the Ryder Cup so soon after his wife, Heather's, death, and he won his three matches. But he wasn't the captain of the triumphant Europe team, and neither was he the best player at the K Club.

Among the other contenders for the award, Joe Calzaghe won the super-middleweight world title, and Zara Philips won a gold medal in the three-day event at the World Equestrian Games.

Clarke, meanwhile, won nothing.

Still, the main criterion for the award appears to be 'personality', and in what has been a miserable year for British sport on the silverware front, Clarke certainly ticks that box.

KOREA'S FINEST STORMS UP THE CHARTS The world rankings don't always "oat everyone's boat, but South Korea's Yong-Eun Yang is perfectly happy with the way the numbers have been crunched of late.

He is currently ranked 34th in the world which secures him a place at the Masters next April. With two wins in Asia this year, he obviously has some pedigree, but because he won the recent HSBC Champions in Shanghai where the "eld included three of the world's top-"ve players in Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen, Yang received a hatful of ranking points for his unexpected success. Last week, it was back to reality when he failed to cut the mustard at the PGA Tour's Qualifying School. Tied for 106th place, he was disquali"ed for signing an incorrect card.

CURTIS BACK ON THE WINNING TRAIL You might not be too enamoured of Ben Curtis who pulled off one of the flukiest major championship victories of all time when he won the 2003 British Open at Royal St George's.

But 2006 has brought about a redemption of sorts for Curtis whose form in the aftermath of his major triumph was awful.

He finishes the year with two wins on the PGA Tour and is now the only American player in his twenties with three career victories. Says something about the state of the game on the other side of the pond.