Padraig Harrington confirmed today the Maybank Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur next month (February 16th-19th) will be his first competitive tournament of the year.
The world number 17, Ireland’s highest ranked player one ahead of Darren Clarke, generally takes a lengthy break from the game over the winter period. And when he does tee it up in Malaysia he will face the likes of Ryder Cup team-mate Miguel Angel Jimenez. The cigar-smoking Spaniard also confirmed his intention to play in the European Tour event co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour.
This week’s action sees the tour arrive in Qatar for the Commerical Bank Qatar Masters in Doha. Paul McGinley, who has seen his stock rise to 20th in the world rankings after success at the 2005 Volvo Masters, will compete in the desert before joining Harrington for family holidays in Barbados.
McGinley will be joined by three other Irishmen in Qatar including; Darren Clarke who makes his seasonal debut, Damien McGrane who finished tied 17th in Abu Dhabi last week and Peter Lawrie who missed the cut there.
Graeme McDowell, who has dropped to 59th in the world rankings, has been at his home in Florida practising for the last three weeks. The 26-year-old intends to play in next week’s Phoenix Open on the US Tour.
McDowell’s last outing came at the inaugural Royal Trophy in Bangkok at the beginning of the month where he and McGinley paired up with both maintaining 100 per cent records in the team event which Europe won against Asia.
