LIFE has a funny habit of putting things into perspective, as Darren Clarke would be the first to tell you right now.

Just a week after his Ryder Cup heroics at the K Club, Darren has been trying very hard to remind people of that perspective word.

As a campaign mounts to have him elected sports personality of the year in the annual BBC television awards, so Clarke has been talking down his Straffan experience.

“The Ryder Cup is a team game, so if any awards are going to be made in honor of our win at the K Club it is the European team who should be honored,” said Clarke when pressed on the subject the other day.

The big man is almost embarrassed by the mass adulation that has come his way ever since he first stepped foot in Ryder Cup terms on the Kildare sod over 10 days ago now.

Clarke knows that much of the sympathy flowing in his direction right now is a direct result of the tragic death of his wife Heather to cancer -– and he would gladly swap it all just to have his best friend by his side right now.

The reality, of course, is that Clarke’s predicament pre-empted so much of the emotional outpourings that made the 2006 Ryder Cup so unique in terms of atmosphere.

It also explains why this particular Ryder Cup was one of the most sporting in the history of the game of golf. The players understood it was no matter of life or death and that same message has been so relevant to Irish soccer this week as well.

On Monday night the Sheffield United midfielder Alan Quinn lost his mother Alice to a heart attack –- just 24 hours after he was recalled to Stephen Staunton’s international squad.

The next day Drogheda United defender Simon Webb buried his 42-year-old wife Annelie in the Co. Louth town, another victim of the cancer blight that touches each and every household these days.

Clarke will continue to play golf after his wife’s death. Ireland will play Cyprus in Nicosia on Saturday night, and Drogheda will resume eircom League action in the not too distant future.

Life carries on, but such events only serve to remind us that sport is a mere distraction in the greater scheme of things.

We are, as my sister-in-law always says, here for a good time and not a long time, so remember that when you’re shouting at your television screen on Saturday as Ireland tackle Cyprus in what is only a football match.