The showers had disappeared from Wentworth yesterday, leaving crisp and windless autumnal weather. With no run on the ball the course was playing long, but the greens were soft and receptive and the pins accessible.
Scoring conditions, in other words, and some of the world's finest players duly thumbed their noses at the best the West course could offer and slaughtered it.
Spare a thought in your prayers then for Padraig Harrington, hammered 7 and 6 by Colin Montgomerie in last year's semi-final, who was two up after three holes yesterday morning, shot 67 and still found himself five down at lunch to the Scot.
Montgomerie shot a tournament-best 61, and then kept Harrington at arm's length to win 5 and 3; his 15-under-par aggregate (over 33 holes) equalled Sandy Lyle's 14-year-old tournament record from four holes more.
Harrington's impressive 11-under-par would have beaten all bar Montgomerie and Lee Westwood and halved with Vijay Singh. Such is matchplay.
"Amazing," said Monty effusively afterwards. "Padraig had such a tremendous start that on the third tee I said to myself I would be happy to finish the morning just one up. Then that happened. I was 11 under par for the next 16 holes, which is the best I have ever done round here and one of my best ball-striking rounds ever."
And then, just in case we hadn't realised it, he shook his head and once more told us it was amazing. It had been.
Montgomerie will now play Singh in today's first semi-final and it threatens to be another titanic contest. Singh overcame Darren Clarke by 5 and 4 yesterday, the keys to his win being a birdie-eagle finish to the morning round that took him from one down to one up at lunch; a charge over the five holes they played on the back nine in the afternoon to finish things - where he was four under par to Clarke's one over - and the legacy to Clarke of the struggle he had with Nick Faldo in their previous match. Clarke simply ran out of steam.
Earlier, much earlier, the dawn shoot-out between Faldo and Clarke had ended in victory for the Ulsterman, but not until he had eagled the fourth extra hole, the 18th, in magnificent style.
A huge drive, followed by a three-wood to five feet was all it took. Faldo, for his part, single-putted each of the four greens and did nothing wrong. He remains a mighty competitor.
Then consider the folk who watched the encounter between Westwood and Sergio Garcia and might have wished they had fireproof clothing such was the intense heat of their competition. Five down after seven holes to some stunning play from Westwood, Garcia gradually reeled his opponent in, shooting 65 to Westwood's 64 to be just one down at lunch.
By the turn in the afternoon, Westwood, out in 31 to go with 30 in the morning, was 12 under par, and Garcia 10 under. But the young Spaniard seemed to have exhausted himself too, playing par golf only and making no further impression. His last chance came at the 16th where from six feet he missed a chance that would have reduced the deficit to one.
Westwood was not going to let go after that, and he will play Ernie Els today. The fellow who won this tournament three times in a row quietly eased himself into this year's semi-finals with a 2 and 1 win over his South African compatriot Retief Goosen, whose 71 was the worse round of the morning by four shots and the most damaging.
