While waiting his turn from the fringe of the 18th green at the K Club, Darren Clarke looked across the water at the main scoreboard. Two putts for a birdie and he would be sharing the halfway lead with his friend and rival Lee Westwood among others, in the £1.5 million sterling Smurfit European Open yesterday.

When the task was duly completed for a sparkling 67, Clarke had made a significant leap from a share of 38th position overnight. But his total of five-under-par was somewhat different to the 11-under he had reached at the same stage last year, and reflected the searching test which a toughened course presented in a fresh, chilling wind.

Surprisingly, Colin Montgomerie is not among the group of six sharing the lead, but he is only a stroke behind Clarke, Westwood, Philip Price, Gary Evans, Gary Emerson and the Argentinian, Angel Cabrera.

"My goal was to give myself the chance of getting back into the tournament and I'm pleased to have done that," said Clarke afterwards. "Conditions weren't easy and there were a lot of demanding shots to be played. So a 67 represented very good scoring out there this afternoon."

He went on: "We are now seeing the course maturing into a great Ryder Cup venue and it has been greatly improved through the introduction of trees and through thicker rough. Looking towards 2005, it's got to be a bonus that we play one of our leading tournaments here."

As early evidence of increased difficulty, Clarke's opening drive at the first clipped one of the new trees on the right and caused his ball to drop into rough from where he carded a bogey. But after a quiet round on Thursday, it took only a spark to reignite the flame of last August.

It came at the fifth, which, at 416 yards, would appear to be a harmless enough parfour for a player of Clarke's calibre. But, after a solid drive, he needed a five-iron second shot uphill to one of the more elusive greens. As it happened, the ball landed 15 feet from the pin and the Tyroneman holed the putt for a birdie.

Another birdie came at the next, this time from a 20-foot putt. Now the challenge was to maintain concentration in the presence of Seve Ballesteros who continued to play military golf (left-right, left-right), though to a far less damaging degree than in Thursday's 82.

Good scoring around The K Club is generally the product of strong iron play and exponents of the craft don't come any stronger than Clarke. So it was that he went on to birdie the short eighth to reach the turn in 33 - two under par.

He then got the sort of break which tends to happen to a player destined for good things. At the 584-yard 10th, a 99-yard lob-wedge third shot popped into the hole for an improbable eagle three. And he carded another three at the next, where a six-iron approach was followed by a 10-foot putt.

Now it was time to consolidate, entering the most testing stretch of the re-routed layout. And Clarke responded by reeling off five solid pars, only to break the pattern at the treacherous 17th, where an attempted fade was somewhat overdone, into the right rough. That and an overzealous first putt meant that he eventually had to hole a 12-footer for a bogey.

But the shot was recovered down the last, as he expected it would. After a three-wood second of 240 yards, the leaderboard told him what he had to do. And the prospect loomed of a weekend battle-royal between himself and Westwood.