The battle for bragging rights as Northern Ireland's best golfer, cunningly disguised as a first-round match at the Accenture World Matchplay Championship, was settled for the time being yesterday when Graeme McDowell beat his boyhood hero Darren Clarke by one hole over a muddy La Costa course in southern California.
Padraig Harrington also made it into the next round after beating American Jeff Maggert 1up, finishing with a birdie at the par five 18th. He missed a four-footer to three-putt the 17th and was all square, but then played a superb pitch to two feet on the last and made it after Maggert's 25-footer hung on the lip.
"That was a tough match - never more than one in it and a lot of tension," said the Dubliner. "Jeff was not giving away anything."
He will now play South African Rory Sabbatini, a 6 and 5 winner over Denmark's Thomas Bjorn.
McDowell played the marginally better golf over 18 holes against Clarke, as his victory on the last green would suggest, but the win over his countryman and colleague - the pair were born 25 miles apart and share the same management company - was as much down to his dogged spirit as it was to his iron shots and more accurate putting.
Prior to the match, McDowell, who is 11 years younger, had spoken fondly of his and Clarke's shared golfing history together at Royal Portrush ("Darren was inspirational to me when I was growing up"), while the older man was, as they say in America, all business.
"You just have to put the blinkers on," Clarke said of his approach to playing against friends. He was not kidding.
Even in happy times Clarke has a heightened complexion, like a man with an urgent appointment whose bus is late. But for the duration of yesterday's match he carried the demeanour of a one-man thunder cloud, striding down the fairway 20 yards ahead of his opponent, cigar clamped in his mouth. Any words exchanged between the two were curt and strictly of the "good shot" variety.
McDowell, who is both less experienced than Clarke and blessed with a sunnier disposition, looked positively intimidated in such an atmosphere and it showed in his tentative play over the early holes. By the time he managed to pull himself together and birdie the eighth he was already two down.
In fairness, Clarke hit some majestic drives on the front nine, as well as holing a couple of great putts on the third and fifth holes. But gradually, the match began to turn on the back nine. McDowell's birdie at the 14th, combined with his opponent's missed four-foot putt, reduced the younger man's deficit to just one hole. "That was the turning point," he said afterwards.
Clark missed another short putt on the 16th, which levelled things, and McDowell closed out the match with a birdie on the final green. "It means a lot to me," he said of the win. "I'm pretty pumped right now. I only felt on top of the match with three or four holes to go."
Joining McDowell in the second round will be Clarke's Ryder Cup colleague Lee Westwood, who thrashed the American Steve Flesch by a margin of 4 and 3 and will now face Davis Love. The chances are that both will form part of a strong European presence in the later stages of this event. Ian Poulter gained the prize scalp of former US Open champion Jim Furyk, while David Howell thumped Japan's Shigeki Maruyama 6 and 5 and Miguel Angel Jimenez overcame Australian Rod Pampling three and two .
Poulter said: "He would have beaten 70 per cent of the field, but I played fantastic."
The Milton Keynes golfer was an approximate seven under when he closed out a three and one victory. He next plays 10th seed Stuart Appleby, while Westwood has to take on American Chris Riley and McDowell meets Appleby's fellow Australian Robert Allenby, who put out Open champion Todd Hamilton by a crushing 6 and 5 margin.
Adam Scott of Australia fought out a tough battle with South African Trevor Immelman, before winning by two holes.
While McDowell and Westwood were among the early winners they were not the earliest. That distinction belonged to the greenskeeping staff who once again performed the miraculous feat of turning a course partly submerged 24 hours earlier into a playable 18 holes.
