Americans remember Darren Clarke. They remember him as the man who first proved Tiger Woods's fallibility. Americans think they know Darren Clarke. They know him as a carloving, cigar-smoking Irishman whose girth shows a fondness for the good things in life.

Image is everything in the United States, and that's the way they see him. Darren Clarke is a player who the great American public can relate to, and that, as much as the influence of sports psychologist Bob Rotella, probably explains his relaxed demeanour this week. It's also why they shout his name from outside the ropes.

Few foreign players have bonded as well with them as Clarke has. The whooping and hollering normally reserved for their own crosses the boundaries when he hits form. And what they discovered at Augusta National yesterday is that the really big golf tournaments bring out the best in Clarke, who rebounded from a moderate opening round by shooting a 67 for a midway total of five-under-par 139 to jump right into the thick of things.

"I just want to play as well as I can, to do my own thing and keep on playing the way I am," said Clarke. "I'm happy with the way I am swinging the club and, if my putter works, then I will certainly give myself a chance."

In fact, Clarke, who switched to a slightly heavier Scotty Cameron putter for yesterday's second round, reduced his putting figures to 28, down from 30 in the first round, but the real factor was a marginally more aggressive mindset, particularly with his approach shots. The result was that he gave himself far more genuine birdie chances and, more times than not, he took them.

"The key is to be patient, as more learned players than me around here keep saying. But it's true. You try not to hit the ball into the wrong places, which I did on a couple of occasions today and paid the penalty, but you don't go looking for birdie all the time. You have to know the moment."

Yesterday, that moment arrived on the first hole when he rolled in a 15 footer for birdie. However, he had to be patient by playing par golf until the seventh hole.

There, he played a superb approach shot to 10 feet above the hole. As Clarke settled over his putt, the crowds broke into applause to welcome Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer onto the third teebox that adjoins the green. Instead of breaking his concentration, Clarke - watched by the three legends - rolled in the putt.

It kick-started the most productive stage in his round. At the eighth hole, Clarke's bold approach was reflected in his decision to go for the green in two. After nearly 10 minutes of a wait, he turned over the fairway wood and pulled the shot into the pines.

"I got lucky," he confessed later. There were no trees in his way, but he still had to play a delicate flop shot over a mound onto the putting surface. He pitched to 10 feet, and sank the birdie putt.

At the 10th, he played his shot of the day. Left with 218 yards to the pin, with the ball on a downslope, Clarke played a "career best" five-wood that actually hit the flagstick and left him with a three-footer for birdie, which he sank. The run was continued at the 11th where he hit a wedge approach to four feet and holed out for his fourth birdie in five holes, moving to five-under-par.

His momentum, however, was halted at the 13th hole.

"What happened there stalled me a bit," he admitted. Having pushed his drive behind trees, with the ball nestling on pine needles, he again played a brilliant recovery to the left fringe. However, the putter caught in the grass behind the ball as he played his eagle putt and it only got halfway to the hole, leaving a 20-footer for birdie which he put four feet past the hole. He held his nerve to hole out.

Another pushed drive at the 15th, again behind trees, meant he couldn't go for the green in two and he did well to claim a par, two-putting from 40 feet.

His only dropped shot of the round came at the short 16th where his seven-iron tee-shot missed the green to the left and did well not to find a watery grave.

Instead, it clung to the grass between green and water, but Clarke's recovery pitch finished four feet above the hole on a glass-like surface. He barely touched the ball, but it slid by for his only bogey.

Clarke, however, responded in style at the penultimate hole. He hit a massive drive and then hit a wedge approach to a sucker pin position and rolled in the four footer for his sixth birdie on the way to equalling his best round at Augusta, his third in 1998.