Darren Clarke is trying not to think about the possibility of winning the Accenture World Matchplay title again. Not yet anyway.
Clarke, champion in 2000, will take on American Ryder Cup player Jim Furyk for a place in the quarter-finals at La Costa in California later today.
Asked about the million-dollar first prize, Clarke, who equalled the tournament record yesterday with his seven and six demolition of seventh seed Davis Love, said: "That's a long way off and I don't want to start going down that route just yet.
"But it's nice after the very, very mediocre year I had last year (his only win was the English Open) to make the changes I have and play pretty solid."
Clarke has gone back to Tiger Woods' coach Butch Harmon, changed caddies and has found a driver which has put him in the big hitter's league.
"You've got to hit it 300 yards and straight and last week (he was 10th at the Nissan Open in Los Angeles) I averaged something like 311.7 yards. It's a long time since I've done that - a long time," he declared.
"It's a fresh start and everything is working out very well so far."
Three years ago Clarke had an impressive list of victims in taking the trophy. Paul Azinger, Mark O'Meara, Thomas Bjorn, Hal Sutton, David Duval and then Tiger Woods in the final.
It might be Woods once more if Clarke can make it through to Sunday. The world number one, having already beaten Carl Pettersson and KJ Choi, is a massive favourite today against Australian Stephen Leaney.
The only other European left in (15 started the week) was German Alex Cejka, who after taking care of Colin Montgomerie and Angel Cabrera faces 2001 US PGA champion David Toms.
In addition to Montgomerie, Paul Lawrie and Paul Casey went out on the first day and they were joined on the sidelines yesterday by Padraig Harrington and Justin Rose.
Harrington's defeat to Scott Hoch means he now has an identical record to Montgomerie in the event - one win in five matches - while Rose was disappointed that after seeing off former Open champion David Duval he lost on the final green to Kevin Sutherland, defending champion but ranked 60th of the 64-strong field.
Sutherland's success again emphasises the unpredictability of 18-hole match play at this level.
"I think that's the beauty of it - you just flip a coin," commented Woods, who was knocked out in the first round by 64th seed Peter O'Malley last year.
He has, however, amassed a record of 10 wins and three defeats in the tournament and that is far better than his Ryder Cup record.
Third seed Phil Mickelson is still alive, but the only other top 10 seed after two days is Furyk.