“I’m really on the right lines and I hope I’ll keep improving,” said the Ulsterman, who turned back to Harmon after dropping from third to 22nd on last year’s European Order of Merit. It was his lowest placing since 1994.

This week would do nicely to step up his game another gear – a million dollar first prize is on offer at the Accenture world match play championship at La Costa near San Diego.

On the same course three years ago Clarke showed what he was capable of by knocking out Paul Azinger, Mark O’Meara, Thomas Bjorn, Hal Sutton and David Duval to reach the final – and then Tiger Woods to hit the jackpot.

Although he was instantly beaten by American Matt Gogel on his return to the club last February, the 34-year-old says: “I’m looking forward to going back.

“Monty [Ryder Cup team-mate Colin Montgomerie] played there last week and says the rough is up, and there are a few new tees.

“That makes driving even more important, and I’m really hitting it well off the tee at the moment.”

After originally being lined up for a first-round clash with Justin Rose on Wednesday, Clarke now finds himself against South African Tim Clark following the withdrawal through injury of fourth seed Vijay Singh. Rose plays 2001 Open champion David Duval.

Clarke remains the one and only European to lift one of the World Golf Championship titles since they were introduced four years ago.

Woods has taken five of them, though not the match play yet – and the others have been shared by Jeff Maggert, Steve Stricker, Kevin Sutherland, Mike Weir and Craig Parry.

Clarke was the 19th seed when he triumphed in 2000 and is ranked 26th of the 64-man field this time.

That illustrates the fact that he has not built on his victory in the event in the way he hoped and many people predicted.

“I would like to have won more, but sometimes you take the wrong path and try to fix something that is not necessarily wrong.”

Stricker was the 55th seed when he won in Melbourne two years ago and Sutherland 62nd last year – clear proof that no tournament all year is harder to predict.

Clarke has only to think back to his quarter-final against Sutton to realise that luck can play a big part.

“Hal birdied three of the first four holes, was three up and then hit a good drive down the fifth. I hit a bad one right, but it caught some electricity power cables and I was able to tee off again.

“I won the hole and never looked back. It was a huge break.”