Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke celebrated their success in the Bridgestone Invitational tournament in Akron on Sunday in the way that friends should. The two men who had finished joint second (Westwood) and joint sixth (Clarke) in the multi-million dollar tournament, one of the World Golf Championship events, made the three-hour drive from Akron to Birmingham, a suburb of Detroit, and then went out to have a few drinks at a bar.

Except it wasn't an ordinary bar. They hadn't just come out of their hotel and found the nearest watering hole. Wittingly or unwittingly they had gone into Dick O'Dow's Irish bar on Maple Road and the moment Clarke and Westwood walked in they realised they had been there before - and so did some of the people in the bar, too.

O'Dow's is near Oakland Hills golf club, where this week's US PGA Championship starts tomorrow and where Europe defeated the US 18 1/2 - 9 1/2 in the 2004 Ryder Cup. After celebrations at the club, it was to O'Dow's that some of the Europe team went in the evening of Sunday 19 September - or was it early in the morning of the 20th? They can't quite remember.

The celebrations after the victory four years ago were extensive. They were less so this past Sunday even though Westwood and Clarke had won nearly $1m at the Firestone Country Club at Akron. "We refrained from standing on the bar this time" Westwood said with a smile. "I'll do it on Sunday night when I win."

Westwood, who finished 11th at the Masters in April and third at the US Open, is 25-1 to become the first man from the British Isles to win this event since Scots-born Tommy Armour did so in 1930. Padraig Harrington, the Open champion, is 5-1 to finish as top European with Westwood 6-1. Phil Mickelson, the world No 2, is favourite to win the last of the year's four major championships. His odds are 10-1.