The lad's come a long way. Colin Montgomerie, who has strode the European fairways as a colossus for the past five years, yesterday even ventured so far as to declare him as a "potential winner" of the US Open in two weeks time, all of which says much about how Darren Clarke has managed to find his way into the game's elite.
Yesterday, in the build-up to the English Open, with the thunder barking in the heavens and the lightning escaping from leaden skies to add a touch of unwelcome colour to the Hertfordshire countryside, Montgomerie was happy enough to leave his clubs locked away for a change and to extol the virtues of two of the new breed, Clarke and Lee Westwood.
Not only are the duo among the Scot's main challengers at Hanbury Manor - a course about 10 miles north of the M25 route which runs around London - in their last European Tour event before the season's second major at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, but they're also among the likely lads itching to depose Montgomerie as Europe's number one, a position he has owned since 1993.
"Yes, of course, I can win, there is no reason why I can't," retorted Clarke, with the sort of new-found confidence that's also increasingly apparent in his game, when informed of Monty's assessment of his forthcoming US Open challenge.
Indeed, the strength in Clarke's voice would have you believe he can win any time he steps out on to the course. "If you take a look at the manner in which Lee (Westwood) and myself have won in recent weeks, to do that you have got to be in the right frame of mind. It's the only way to be coming up to a US Open, or any major."
Clarke, who has finished 1st 29th-2nd in his last three tournaments, all of them big-money events which have elevated him to fourth place in the European money list, will fly to the United States on Sunday night as soon as his involvement in the English Open is finished.
He leads an eight-strong Irish contingent here that includes Padraig Harrington, the only other Irishman exempt from qualifying for the US Open and who has recovered from some strained wrist ligaments incurred through too much practice.
The other Irish players here are Philip Walton, Raymie Burns, Eamonn Darcy, Christy O'Connor Junior, Ronan Rafferty and Des Smyth. Paul McGinley is taking a week's rest and the Dubliner also looks unlikely to play in the US Open qualifying and will most probably return to the circuit for next week's European Grand Prix.
Among the main reasons for Clarke's continued rise is a new mental toughness. He's been reading the books of psychologist Bob Rotella, with good results. "I used to have a thick head, to be pretty stubborn. Someone would try to advise me in the past and it would go in one ear and out the other," said Clarke. "I've started to listen a bit more and it is working."
Indeed, Montgomerie was being honest, one felt, when he judged that Clarke and Westwood (who pipped the Ulsterman by a stroke in the TPC in Hamburg which finished on Monday) are "now at the top of the tree". More pertinent, though, was the Scottish player's observation that "the US Open is the toughest mentally to win. It's a mental struggle, most demanding of all the majors. It is especially true for an international player to go over to America and do it".
In those circumstances, in suggesting Clarke as a potential US Open champion Montgomerie was pretty much giving the inform Irishman an unreserved seal of approval.
For now, however, the quest for the top prize of £108,330 on offer at the English Open tops their agenda. It will be Montgomerie's last tournament before the US Open, but Clarke and Westwood will acclimatise by playing in the Buick Classic in Westchester next week.
Clarke was one of those who managed to get in a complete round in yesterday's unseasonal conditions of heavy rain, thunder and lightning which eventually forced the pro-am to be abandoned. "It's a fantastic course. You must be very straight - if you're in the rough, then there is nothing to do but to get back onto the fairway with a sand wedge," he said. "Going on last week's stats, and the way my game is, it's a course that suits me."
While the triumvirate of Montgomerie, Clarke and Westwood are considered the "big guns" on the Hanbury Manor course, defending champion Per-Ulrik Johansson, Thomas Bjorn and Patrik Sjoland are also in the strong field. And Walton, who emerged from a self-professed "lean spell" with a fourth place finish in Hamburg, finally believes his putting problems are over, although the Malahide man was among the victims of the weather (along with Montgomerie and Westwood) who failed to play the course yesterday.
