After enduring almost every conceivable weather system earlier in the week, La Costa Resort fell victim yesterday to El Nino. It happened in the person of Sergio Garcia, who produced the highlight of the tournament so far by thrashing Canada's Mike Weir 7 and 6 in the second round of the $5 million Andersen Consulting Matchplay Championship.

But Garcia's performance only marginally outshone that of Ireland's Darren Clarke, who did himself proud with a 5 and 4 victory over the 1998 US Masters and British Open champion, Mark O'Meara. In what was easily Clarke's best matchplay effort as a professional, he had no bogeys and was five under par for the holes played.

Now set for a third round meeting with fellow European Thomas Bjorn today, he was quietly pleased with his win.

"It was a very professional performance," he said. "I got my nose ahead of Mark early on and I made no mistakes. That sort of matchplay golf is very hard to beat."

The Dane had a marathon battle with Colin Montgomerie before eventually claiming victory with a par at the 23rd, after both players had missed earlier winning chances. On the face of it Bjorn looks to be a less formidable opponent, though he halved his Ryder Cup singles with Justin Leonard at Valderrama in 1997.

The return of sunshine to southern California didn't help troubled Masters champion JoseMaria Olazabal. Six weeks before Augusta, the 34-year-old was well beaten by Mark Calcavecchia, the 1989 British Open champion.

Olazabal, who had hoped to use this as the start of his Masters build-up, said: "I didn't play well and made too many mistakes in my club selection."

Yet it remained a strong tournament for European challengers, nine of whom survived the opening round, compared with three 12 months ago. Early in the day, their second-round complement had been completed when Montgomerie and Bjorn won their matches which had remained unfinished overnight, due to a deluge on Wednesday afternoon.

Clarke appears to have regained the irresistible matchplay feel which made him virtually unbeatable as an amateur. Crucially, an early breakthrough came at the long second, where he chipped to two feet for a winning birdie.

Driving the ball long and straight, about 15 yards beyond his opponent, he was always in control from then on, even after O'Meara followed him home for a half in birdie at the fourth. And the Tyroneman went two up with a par at the short seventh, when his opponent missed the green.

Turning two up, he went on to wrap up the match with a run of four threes from the short 11th - par, eagle, birdie, par. The eagle was the product of a 30-foot chip-in after he had powered a three-wood of 239 yards, left to right, around an obtrusive tree. A 10-foot birdie putt at the next left him four up and within sight of the finish.

"Even though Mark didn't play as well as he can, I'm still very pleased with my win," he said. "And I must say that Mark was a most gracious opponent, as I knew he would be."

Earlier in the day, British Open champion Paul Lawrie had the distinction of becoming the first of six Europeans to go through to the last 16. The turning point in his defeat of Billy Mayfair was a run of three birdies from the turn, allowing him to go from one down to one up after the short 11th.

But things were very much tighter for the favourite, Tiger Woods, who was taken to the 18th by the South African Retief Goosen.

The main shocks were the departure of Montgomerie, of Ernie Els, who lost to Bob Estes, of Tom Lehman, who was trounced by Miguel Angel Jimenez, and of Lee Westwood, who lost to Scott Hoch on the 18th.

Meanwhile, Garcia set a record margin of victory for the tournament, outstripping the 6 and 4 beating which Bob Tway administered to Tom Watson here 12 months ago. And it was achieved with stunning figures of six under par for the 12 holes.

It made quite a contrast for the 20-year-old after Wednesday's struggle when he was taken to the 20th by Loren Roberts. So it was hardly surprising that, with a broad grin, his first post-round comment was: "I feel a lot better today."

Where Clarke had three birdies and an eagle, the Spaniard went one better, all of them birdies. He reached the turn in 31 to be six up at that stage.

Looking to today's third round clash with the number two seed David Duval, Garcia said: "I'm not saying it's going to be the same result, but I'll be a lot more confident than I was entering this event."

Duval's reaction? "I'll have to play well to win. It should be an exciting match."