Darren Clarke became Ireland's first million-dollar sportsman here at the La Costa Resort yesterday. As a 66/1 outsider, he caused a sensation by beating the favourite and world No 1, Tiger Woods, 4 and 3 in the final of the $5 million Andersen Consulting Matchplay Championship.
This was only the second staging of the World Golf Championship event: Clarke was beaten in the first round last year. His transformation this time is attributed to a growing maturity for one of the game's under-achievers.
Clarke is a native of Dungannon, Co Tyrone, where his father, Godfrey, worked as a greenkeeper and his mother, Hettie, helped behind the bar.
Indeed, it became something of a ritual for her to serve celebratory drinks on her son's instructions, after his early victories on the European tour.
His affection for the town was exemplified after the Omagh bombing. Stunned by the carnage at a time when he and his wife, Heather, were celebrating the birth of their son, Tyrone, he arranged a charity event at Portmarnock Hotel and Links a month later, raising £350,000.
Ranked 19th in the world before coming here, he had already become the wealthiest Irish golfer before the weekend's activities. Now he is being viewed as capable of emulating another outstanding Ulsterman, Fred Daly, who remains the only Irishman to have won the British Open, at Hoylake in 1947. Clarke recently became the only professional, other than Daly, to be made an honorary life member of Royal Portrush.
Clarke joked with a US television interviewer yesterday that there would be "a few bars going strong" in Northern Ireland to celebrate his win.
"It's great for Arthur Andersen to give us all this money that my wife's probably going to spend this week," he added.
Clarke's remarkable progress emphasises the unpredictable nature of tournament golf in that he missed the cut in the Los Angeles Open only the previous weekend.
But his form began to strengthen when a first-round win over the 1993 USPGA champion, Paul Azinger, on Wednesday was followed by a convincing victory over Mark O'Meara, winner of the US Masters and British Open titles in 1998.
The £625,000 prize is the highest ever won by an Irish sportsperson. The previous highest was the £166,000 Clarke received as winner of the Volvo Masters in Spain in 1998.