Four rounds in the sixties around the celebrated terrain of Firestone, brought Darren Clarke third place on his own in the NEC Invitational in August. It meant a handsome reward of $375,000 and brought his dividend from five World Golf Championship events to a sizeable $1,603,000 which, of course, included a $1 million jackpot in the matchplay at La Costa last year.
And we shouldn't have been surprised. By that stage, the country's top three professionals had made it one of the most memorable seasons in recent history.
Perhaps their greatest achievement was to bring Ireland's representation in a European Ryder Cup team to an unprecedented three. Granted, Eamonn Darcy, Christy O'Connor Jnr and John O'Leary had been in the same side at Laurel Valley in 1975, but that was in the context of a British and Irish line-up for which the competition would have been far less demanding.
As it happened, Padraig Harrington shared 17th place at Firestone and Paul McGinley was five strokes further back in 26th place. And much to his annoyance, McGinley felt obliged to head for the final Ryder Cup qualifying event in Munich later that week, though there was virtually chance he would be caught.
Of course a Ryder Cup debut must now wait for another year. But the Dubliner can reflect with enormous pride on the way he effectively ensured automatic selection by capturing the Wales Open in a play-off at Celtic Manor.
That was on August 12th when it became necessary to reduce the tournament to 36 holes because of extremely hostile weather. In the event, everything was to hinge on the play of the short 12th where McGinley, Paul Lawrie and the inexperienced Daren Lee were thrust into a three-way battle for the title.
Lawrie was first to depart but it was the fifth time around before Lee was eventually beaten. After the Englishman had failed to save par when overshooting the green, McGinley played a superb bunker recovery to little more than a foot from the hole to capture his third European title.
That came only four weeks after Clarke had gained a milestone triumph - his third of the season and 10th of his career.
Since 1982, when O'Leary hit a glorious two-iron onto the 72nd green to capture the Carrolls Irish Open at Portmarnock, no Irishman had succeeded in winning a European Tour event on their own home soil. But all of that was to change at The K Club on Sunday, July 8th. With a final round of 66 for an aggregate of 273, Clarke came from two strokes down overnight to win the top prize of £333,330 sterling in the Smurfit European Open.
And so, after a lapse of 19 years, the hopes and dreams of this golfing nation were finally fulfilled.
Clarke had started the year with victory in the Dimension Data Pro-Am in South Africa in February. Then, after a miserable closing round of 79 had pushed him down to 32th in the Spanish Open, he responded by capturing the Chunichi Crowns Tournament in Japan a week later. All of which meant that he had now won on four continents - Europe, Africa, Asia and America.
By comparison, Harrington's progress was steady rather than dramatic. By the middle of August, however, second-place finishes in the Malaysian Open, Dubai Desert Classic, Portuguese Open and behind Colin Montgomerie in the Murphy's Irish Open, had helped lift the Stackstown man to 13th place in the world rankings.
But the quest for another European title remained elusive. Indeed it was never more so than earlier this month when, despite an astonishing, morning round of 61, he was forced to settle for runner-up position to Ian Woosnam in the Cisco Systems World Matchplay at Wentworth.
