STEVE ELKINGTON, known as "The Elk", has demonstrated considerable stealth in his wanderings recently and is now quite a tournament catch. His rise to number four in the world rankings is liable to attracts the attentions of various organisers around the world, not least those behind the Murphy's Irish Open and the Smurfit European Open.
The 34 year old Australian's wire to wire victory in the Players' Championship at Sawgrass provided the clearest indication yet of his elevation towards superstar status.
Apart from the $630,000 top prize (which moved him to the top of the US Tour money list with $984,400 from just four tournaments), Elkington joined Jack Nicklaus and Fred Couples as the only multiple winners of the TPC unofficially considered the fifth major, and became the first player since Tom Kite in 1989 to win twice in the Florida swing.
His addition to the Irish Open field at Druids Glen on July 3rd/ 6th, alongside Nick Faldo and holder Colin Montgomerie, whom Elkington beat in a play off for the US PGA championships two years' ago, would be quite an attraction for an Irish public spoon fed a succession of big names in recent years, from John Daly in 1994 to Greg Norman in 1995 and Ernie Els last year.
Elkington has always possessed one of the smoothest swings in golf; but it is his discovery of a putting stroke to die for which has propelled him into a different league. Indeed, after his seven shot winning margin over Scott Hoch to reclaim a title he previously won in 1991, Elkington enthused: "That's probably my best ever putting performance. I made every putt I had from within 10 feet.
"I want to be humble about it, but I blew away the best field we've ever had (all top 50 players in the world competing in a tournament for the first time ever). I didn't know I was capable of it, but I did it in good fashion wire to wire," added Elkington, who will finalise his US Masters preparations by competing in the Free port McDermott Classic in New Orleans this week.
Interestingly, defending champion Nick Faldo and European number one Colin Montgomerie have chosen to take a week off before the Augusta test. Faldo returns to his home in Lake Nona to build up his strength in the gym, while Montgomerie wants to work on his putting, which failed him miserably in Sawgrass.
Apart from Elkington's win, the other big talking point from the Players' Championship concerned Davis Love III, who paid a heavy price for his ignorance of the rules.
The American Ryder Cup player was disqualified for signing's for a wrong score, costing him $98,857. Love moved the ball a matter of inches when making a practice swing on the 17th greens during the final round, incurring a one stroke penalty. However, he failed to move the ball back to its original position, which supercedes the original penalty and costs two strokes.
Love only assessed himself a one stroke penalty - so, when he signed for a four instead of a five, he was disqualified.
Had he moved his ball back and putted out, Love would have finished with a 73 and his 72 holes total would have earned him $101,437. His disqualification put him back to last place, earning him $6,580.
The financial reward's on offer in the curtailed Madeira Island Open were small in comparison, but Des Smyth yesterday offered the opinion that players leaving the Portuguese territory did so in the belief that the Ryder Cup qualifying campaign only gets under way in earnest when the European Tour resumes with the Cannes Open in two weeks time.
"There was an air that the really serious stuff has got to start yet, a sense that the real Ryder Cup will start now that the big money tournaments are approaching," said Smyth.
Despite his traditionally slow start to the season, Darren Clarke's bid for a place on Europe's team hasn't been unduly hindered. The Ulsterman remains in fourth place in the qualifying table with 201,379 points, while Padraig Harrington, who undertook 10 straight tournaments (missing just one cut), lies in 14th place with 121,600 points.
Far from taking a break from his globe trotting, though, Harrington - who has competed in Australia, South Africa, Dubai and Madeira in the opening months of the season - yesterday jetted off to the United States for a two week holiday.
Not surprisingly, Harrington given his form and the amount of tournaments he has played, currently heads the "birdie leaders" table on the Tour.
Ireland's other main Ryder Cup candidate, Paul McGinley, intends to return to competitive action at the Cannes Open. The Dubliner decided to take a rest earlier than originally intended by missing both the Canaries Open and the Madeira Island Open.
Meanwhile, Europe's Ryder Cup captain, Seve Ballesteros may have viewed Jesper Parnevik's failure to survive the midway cut in Sawgrass with mixed emotions.
Ballesteros had used the Swede's impressive early season form as one of his main arguments in looking for an increase in his wild cards to four - but his failure to secure such an increase ironically coincided with a dip in Parnevik's form.
