The chase for the Harry Vardon Trophy may be over, now that it is safely in Retief Goosen's hands, but Ireland's top two players have other things on their minds heading into this week's Volvo Masters. Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington will be chasing world ranking points as well as the title - and the €539,075 first prize - when this week's season-ending tournament takes place in Montecastillo, starting on Thursday.
But Harrington will also be seeking to fend off Goosen in the quest to head the tour's stroke average for the season, the statistic (one of seven different categories) that means most to the players.
Mike Weir's win in the Tour Championship on the US Tour moved the Canadian up nine places in the world rankings, to ninth. And Clarke - who started the year in seventh position - was the fall guy, slipping down one place to make way for him. The drop maintained Clarke's late-season downward fall in the rankings to 10th, and he may yet add an extra tournament in South Africa next month (The SA Players' Championship, which has ranking points available) to help secure his place in the top-10 at year's end.
Meanwhile, Harrington has slipped to 16th in the world rankings, mainly as a consequence of losing the points he'd garnered for winning last year's Madrid Open. Clarke, Harrington - who stayed on in Spain for a week's holiday after his unsuccessful defence in Madrid - and Paul McGinley, who has actually moved up the rankings to 39th, comprise the Irish challenge in Montecastillo. McGinley, incidentally, has virtually assured his place to the US Masters for next season. The top-50 in the world rankings at the end of the year will earn invites.
Harrington, the long-time leader in the stroke average, has a precarious advantage on Goosen. Both men have completed 74 competitive rounds this season and the Dubliner leads with an outstanding average of 69.28, to Goosen's 69.31.
There are seven winners from the past 13 years in the field, including Clarke, who won here in 1998. Last year, the Tyroneman was edged out of the title when Pierre Fulke hit the European Tour's "Shot of the Year", a five-wood at the 70th hole that helped keep Clarke at bay.
Other past winners in this week's field are Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie and Mark McNulty.
In all, 24 winners from this season's tour will be competing. For Harrington and McGinley, it will be the perfect send-off to Japan for next week's World Cup, where Tiger Woods and David Duval have confirmed they will be defending their title.
While the elite of the tour battle it out for huge prize money in southern Spain, aspiring card holders will be involved in the second stage of the qualifying school at three courses in northern Spain - Emporda, Pals and Peralda. The 72-hole second phase starts today and, from an initial 233 starters, approximately 90 players will become eligible to progress to the final Qualifying School in San Roque and Sotogrande at the end of the month. John Kelly, Francis Howley, Damien McGrane and Peter Lawrie are among those seeking to emerge from this stage.
Unless the threat of legal action bears fruit, Scotland's Alistair Forsyth - who finished 116th in the Order of Merit, missing out on a guaranteed card for next year - will also be competing in the final Qualifying School. Only the top 115 players receive an automatic card but Forsyth's manager Alan Doyle is unhappy that one of those places was taken by a player, Sergio Garcia, who didn't fulfil his obligation of playing in a minimum 11 events. Garcia played in 10, but the European Tour chose to credit him with 11 because he was in the field for the American Express championship in Louisville, which was cancelled because of the terrorist attacks in the United States.
Meanwhile, Ian Stanley and Denis Durnian have completed the Rest of the World side for the inaugural Warburg Cup match against the United States in Kiawah Island on November 16th-18th. They join Gary Player, Isao Aoki, Jose Maria Canizares, Nick Faldo, Stewart Ginn, Bernhard Langer, Frank Nobilo, Des Smyth, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam in the side.
