By Debbie McGoldrick

The rebound romance golf widower Darren Clarke entered into with an old family friend just weeks after his wife Heather’s death from cancer last summer is over before it ever really got going.

We told you last week that Clarke, the Co. Tyrone-born superstar, started seeing Nicola Regan, a soon to be divorced mother of six who lives near his home in England, but a Clarke friend predicted the union wouldn’t last, and it hasn’t.

Clarke’s management company issued a statement last week confirming the uncoupling. “Darren Clarke’s relationship with family friend Nicky Regan has ended by mutual consent,” said the statement, adding that they had become “too close too soon,” and would remain friends.

Regan, whose estranged financier husband had been accused (and cleared) of some shady financial dealings, gave her own interview to a British tabloid, saying she understands what Darren is going through.

“Darren felt that right now his main priority are his two boys and he can’t be in a relationship when he is grieving,” she said.

“He has been through a rollercoaster of emotions over the past five months. I think it has all got too much. It seemed the best thing to do.

‘We will stay good friends and I have many fond memories of our time together. Who knows what the future may bring.”