As the latest acquisition from his manager, the black cigar-holder was clipped to the player's golf bag. In a country where image-making has been raised to an art form, Darren Clarke was succumbing to the full treatment here at the Tournament Players' Club yesterday.

With Andrew "Chubby" Chandler slipping comfortably into the role of Hollywood mogul, Clarke played his designated role in extracting maximum return from a superb, recent triumph in the Andersen Consulting Matchplay at La Costa. "We're selling the image of a big, cuddly Irishman with a liking for champagne and cigars - and it seems to be working," said the manager.

It made for a busy morning. After a meeting with the media at 8.15 a.m. there was a one-hour session on the Valley Course here, making a television advertisement for one of his sponsors, Titleist. Then came television and radio interviews. "There's a lot of financial possibilities out here, including course-design, and we intend to get our share of it," added Chandler.

All the while, the recognition-factor was evident in the reaction of the humble American fan. With an automatic camera poised, the cry went out: "Hey, Darren: over here." And the usual contingent of autograph hunters seemed a little more eager than usual.

The American players also voiced their approval. After all, this was the man who went headto-head over 36 holes with the game's more feared exponent and crushed him four and three. "I suppose they're pleased to know that Tiger can be beaten," suggested Clarke. "He's got an aura about him and I can imagine how we Europeans would feel if we had to play against him every week."

But after the players and the fans, it appears that Clarke still has to make an impact with US officials. That much is evident from this week's draw in which he starts off the 10th tee in the first round tomorrow morning, with Americans Brian Henninger and Billy Mayfair: hardly matinee idols.

Meanwhile, Chandler sees his man as a latter-day Walter Hagen, who broke the mould of the cloth-cap professional 75 years ago by insisting on flamboyant entrances, only through the front door. And where clubs resisted, he would make an elaborate point of changing in the carpark in an eye-catching limousine like a Stutz Bearcat. "And he wasn't a bad matchplayer," said Chandler with a smile.

For his part, Clarke has much to catch up on. There is the excitement of a second child which his wife, Heather, is expecting on October 4th. Before leaving London for last week's Bay Hill Invitational, there was the matter of buying a rather special, early gift for her birthday this Friday. "That did away with some of the La Costa winnings," said the Tyrone man.

Then, as a keen rugby fan, having played for Dungannon as a teenager, he was eager to hear all about Ireland's magnificent win in Paris last Sunday. "Being in Bay Hill, my only source of information was the Internet," he said. "It seems to have been a wonderful match. This Brian O'Driscoll must be a very special player."

Clarke missed the cut last year on his first appearance in the Players' Championship but he has reason to expect a vastly improved showing this time around. For a start, there was the unexpected bonus of spending six hours in a one-to-one situation with coach Butch Harmon here last Monday, 24 hours before the arrival of his top client.

Though Harmon's main coaching work has been with Woods since 1993, he is clearly enjoying the additional attention stemming from Clarke's heightened profile. But as the man said, he knows the side his bread is buttered on, as was evident from the scene here yesterday.

While Clarke was getting in some quiet putting practice on his own, Harmon was the focus of attention 50 yards away, giving his undivided attention to the world's number one.

"I find Butch a tremendous help, not just in correcting recurring faults like, for instance, dropping the club behind me, but in boosting my overall confidence," he said. "If I've hit three or four good shots on the range, Butch will say `Great shot, great shot.' But when I hit a bad one, he will say something like: `Where did you go for dinner last night.' He completely ignores the bad ones and focuses only on the good ones."

He went on: "The big difference La Costa has made to my game is that I now believe I can win every time I tee it up over here. That's not to say that I wasn't thinking positively 12 months ago. It's just that there's a world of difference between thinking you can win and really believing you can."

With that in mind, he is planning very carefully for assaults on this year's major championships, especially the first two. After finishing here, he will return home for a short rest before returning the following weekend to prepare for the US Masters. And instead of playing in Europe in the Welsh Open on the weekend prior to the US Open, he will head for Pebble Beach on the Saturday before the championship, so as to be acclimatised to the eight-hour time difference.

He continues to talk about fitness programmes, but there was no perceptible change in his girth, despite the recent ordeal of food poisoning. "It happened after I returned home from Dubai," he said. "Heather and I were in London paying lots of bills and we had time only for a sandwich, a real bad sandwich. It meant we were both sick over the weekend, so we didn't do much celebrating."

The Americans like Clarke, who fits their stereotype of the fun-loving Irishman. But in the final analysis, both he and his manager are aware that the rich pickings from commercial contracts over here, will have to be linked to tournament performances. In that context, La Costa was only a start.