Volvo Masters: There are those who call the 17th at Valderrama el hoyo del terror, such are the punishments this infamous hole - an, uhm, Spanish inquisition, if you will - has inflicted on golfers. Yesterday, not only did Darren Clarke become its latest victim, his antics on the par five of 536 yards added to its horrible lore.

When he heard Clarke had run up a sextuple-bogey 11 on this notorious hole that provides a permanent sting in the tail on a course rated as number one on continental Europe, David Feherty - another Northern Ireland golfer all too familiar with the hole - joked: "Tell Darren it's always good to have a couple of ones on your card."

You could understand if Clarke didn't exactly see the funny side. Having stayed on the range long after darkness descended the previous night, the 36-year-old had not only resurrected his prospects in the Volvo Masters, he had played quite beautifully for 16 holes - claiming five birdies - and had actually moved into the lead on his own on three-under-par as he approached his ball in the middle of the fairway on the 17th.

The next 10 minutes, however, were to ruin all the work that preceded it. Clarke proceeded to put his lay-up into a fairway bunker. And then it got really ugly.

With 93 yards to the flag, his sandwedge recovery hit the bank in front of the green and inevitably rolled back into the water that guards the elevated green.

Clarke took a penalty, dropping the ball on the right-hand side of the fairway with 71 yards to the pin. As he approached his ball, a spectator's mobile phone played a merry tune. Then, incredibly, after the phone stopped ringing, it recommenced immediately.

"Will you just turn it off?" intoned the player.

When he had gathered himself, Clarke's approach pitched 12 feet past the hole . . . and spun back off the green, down the slope and into the water.

For his next penalty drop, Clarke moved over to the left side of the fairway and dropped in the drop zone. With 64 yards to the flag, he caught his pitch heavy and the ball hit the bank and rolled back into the water.

By now three balls had dipped below the water's surface. Clarke took another drop and, this time, with what was his ninth stroke, he found the back of the green. Two putts later, and Clarke was holing out for an 11, dropping six shots in one hole. In the blink of an eye, his disaster had dropped him from first to 27th.

"That must be a new record for the amount of money a man can spend in the shortest possible time," remarked his caddie Billy Foster.

In the end, he was to sign for a 72 - leaving him on three-over-par - and, when asked if it was the most annoying thing that had ever happened to him on a golf course, Clarke replied, "I wouldn't be too enamoured at the moment, is the best way to put it. I had played beautifully, was top of the leaderboard and, then, for that to happen."

In truth, Clarke - who had struck the ball superbly until that loose lay-up from the middle of the 17th was followed by a comedy of errors - didn't deserve such a fate. But this hole, redesigned at a cost of over €1 million by Seve Ballesteros, has inflicted pain on many golfers beforehand and will do so again.

In the 2002 Volvo Masters, Gary Evans ran up a 10 there and Paul Casey signed for a nine. And, in the 1999 American Express, Tiger Woods overcame running up a triple bogey eight there in his final round to go on to beat Miguel Angel Jimenez in a play-off.

Clarke, though, could only accept his fate.

The hole didn't just bite him; it devoured him.