DARREN CLARKE reached the 17th tee at Valderrama soon after three o’clock yesterday afternoon. If at that moment his thoughts had turned towards the conclusion of his second round in the Volvo Masters, he might have permitted himself a quiet pat on the back.

Despite a lacklustre 73 on the first day, Clarke had improved so much on the second that for 16 holes he had demonstrated the sort of form that he, the fifteenth best player in the world, is supposed to produce. He had scored six birdies and the 17th hole, all 536 yards of it, was an opportunity for a seventh. Moments later it had all gone wrong.

As he walked off the 17th green, Clarke had tumbled off the leaderboard. He had taken 11 strokes to play the hole, squandering six strokes to par in 15 minutes. His disposition had swung from sunny to thunderous.

It takes some doing to go from three under par to three over in a few minutes, but if there is one hole on which it can happen more quickly than most it is the 17th, a par-five with a green that is tilted down towards a pond in front of it and with two bunkers at the back.

In certain winds, players can reach the green in two strokes, as Miguel Ángel Jiménez did in 1994 when he holed his second shot. But after the green had been repositioned and redesigned a year later, most players preferred to hit their second shots short and then pitch on to the putting surface.

Tiger Woods took an eight at the 17th on the last day of a tournament in 1999. He hit his approach shots into the water on three of the four days, and in the Ryder Cup here two years earlier, he putted off the green into the water. In 2000 Ian Baker-Finch, playing as a non-competing marker, took ten strokes on this hole.

This might serve to make Clarke’s 11 all the more understandable, except that one wonders how a world-class player can hit three successive approach shots, each of less than 100 yards, into the same hazard? “It sums up my season,” Clarke said. He was later to be seen on the practice ground attended by Pete Cowen, the coach, John Newton, his genial factotum, and Billy Foster, his caddie, a large proportion of Team Clarke.

Clarke’s misadventure at the penultimate hole not only spoilt his round but stole some of the thunder from Alastair Forsyth, who held the lead for much of the day, and Sergio García, who grabbed it from the self-effacing Scot on the last green.

These past two days — Clarke and the 17th notwithstanding — Forsyth’s golf has shrieked, “look at me”. The only man not to have a bogey in the first round, he had two yesterday before he dropped a third after he drove into a grove of trees on the 18th.

His 69 for a 36-hole total of 137, five under par, may be much lower than he expected but it is doubtful if it is good enough to provide a platform from which he can attack García, who has a one-stroke lead. Ian Poulter is more likely to challenge his Ryder Cup team-mate. He took one putt on each green from the 10th to the 17th inclusive on his way to a 67, the second lowest score of the day to finish two shots off the lead.

García is as exuberant as Forsyth is reticent and having recovered from dropping three strokes on his first three holes, the Spaniard burst into life and covered his inward nine in 31. Then he survived an inquiry into whether or not he had declared his tee-shot lost on the 3rd and whether, therefore, his provisional ball was declared as such.

After a lengthy investigation conducted by John Paramor, the European Tour’s chief referee, García was cleared and remains on target to win his second event in his home country in three weeks.

WATER TORTURE

TWO-ROUND SCORES

Great Britain and Ireland unless stated

136: S García (Sp) 67, 69

137: A Forsyth 68, 69

138: I Poulter 71, 67

139: Á Cabrera (Arg) 73, 66; C Cévaër (Fr) 69, 70

140: P Hanson (Swe) 70, 70

141: P O’Malley (Aus) 69, 72; J Lomas 69, 72; B Davis 68, 73

142: D Howell 73, 69; P Harrington 72, 70; P Casey 72, 70; T Price (Aus) 71, 71

143: P Sjöland (Swe) 73, 70; L Westwood 72, 71; T Jaidee (Thai) 72, 71; R González (Arg) 71, 72; J Kingston (SA) 71, 72; S Dodd 71, 72; T Immelman (SA) 70, 73; B Dredge 70, 73

144: S Kjeldsen (Den) 73, 71; D Park 73, 71; J Haeggman (Swe) 71, 73

145: T Björn (Den) 75, 70; S Drummond 74, 71; D Lynn 74, 71; G McDowell 73, 72; D Clarke 73, 72; M Fraser (Aus) 70, 75; L Donald 69, 76

146: R Green (Aus) 73, 73; B Lane 73, 73; J M Lara (Sp) 67, 79

147: A Hansen (Den) 78, 69; P Price 76, 71; M Maritz (SA) 76, 71; J-F Remesy (Fr) 74, 73; P Broadhurst 73, 74

148: P McGinley 76, 72

149: R Jacquelin (Fr) 76, 73; C Montgomerie 75, 74; B Rumford (Aus) 74, 75; M Á Jiménez (Sp) 73, 76

150: M Siem (Ger) 76, 74; H Stenson (Swe) 75, 75; M Campbell (NZ) 74, 76

151: S Gallacher 77, 74; S Khan 76, 75; M Tunnicliff 75, 76; N O’Hern (Aus) 74, 77

152: T Levet (Fr) 75, 77