Fond memories of the place. High-fives on the old fifth teebox with his caddie Billy Foster and a slightly bemused Katsuyoshi Tomori after his first PGA European Tour hole-in-one. Much whooping and hollering and guys going kind of crazy down by the greenside.

Destiny was calling. A day earlier, in Saturday's second round, Darren Clarke had brought the good doctor's course to its knees with a 60 that might - and probably should - have been even better. All that and, yet, 11 months on, as Europe's current number one on the moneylist heads into another European Open, there is a sense that the Arnie Palmer-designed course owes him something.

"To do what I did last year," recalled Clarke, "to go through the range of emotions that I felt after shooting 60, and to follow up with a 66 and a hole-in-one, and then to go out and not get the job done properly was very disappointing and my game reflected that for a couple of months afterwards.

"At the end of the day, I have to look back and hopefully it will make me stronger as a player. That was the view I took at the end of last season, and I think I've proved that so far this season."

Clarke's statistics do indeed prove that he has well and truly recovered from whatever turmoil last year's Straffan experience had on his confidence: he leads the European Order of Merit, has become the first European player to win a World Golf Championship tournament (in the Andersen Consulting Matchplay) and has successfully defended his English Open crown. Into the bargain, he has made every cut.

As far as his love affair with the K Club goes, it could be time for some retribution. Last year's 60 in the second round (the second of his career, equalling the one he achieved at Monaco in 1992 but in mean terms three shots better than that score) was, he said, "probably the best round of golf I've ever played because I hardly hit it outside six or eight feet all day." Clarke's demeanour certainly appears more serious this week, especially when compared to his relaxed state in Ballybunion a week ago. Bright and early on Monday morning, he was out on the course - he played six holes with the promising Australian player Adam Scott, who is also coached by Butch Harmon, and whom Clarke feels "is going to be one of the best players in the world" - and he estimates that it has improved in conditioning and toughness since a year ago.

"It's always good to come back to play courses where you've done well before. This is one I've played well on, and hopefully I can do more of the same," he said.

Since his arrival, in fact, Clarke has been working on "one or two" aspects to his game. "I'm always working on things, to be honest," he said. "I had a tough week last week in that I wasn't hitting the ball well, nor was I putting well, which doesn't add up to much. The way I played last week, I didn't have such an enjoyable week on the course."

While Clarke felt that his timing was a little awry in Ballybunion - "It's a bit better now, not far off," he said - there has been no transatlantic crisis phone call to his coach Harmon in Las Vegas and there is a sense that he is focused on the challenge that the K Club will present to the players.

Although his mind kept drifting back to the old lay-out of the course, a mite confusing for someone who was formerly attached to the facility, he felt that the additional trees transplanted "are everywhere", as he put it, and that they are to the course's benefit. "It's a very hard golf course," he added.

So it is that this week's European Open will be Clarke's final preparation for the British Open at St Andrews in two weeks time. On Monday and Tuesday of next week, he plays in the JP McManus Pro-Am in Limerick and returns to his home in Sunningdale before flying up to St Andrews "around tea time on Saturday." But thoughts of the claret jug and such things have been dispatched to the back of his mind. The event to the forefront is the European Open, an event he is entitled to believe owes him something.