Results this season may have fallen below his expectations, but Paul McGinley is on the verge of becoming the eighth Irish member of the European Tour's exclusive "Millionaires' Club".
The 30-year-old Dubliner goes into the Oki Pro-Am starting at Madrid's La Moraleja club today, needing just £29,446 to take his prize money on the circuit into seven figures.
McGinley, who has £970,554 to his credit in only six full seasons on the circuit, will need to finish in the top two to achieve the milestone here, but if he falls short, could finish the job at the Volvo Masters in Jerez next week where a £1 million prize fund is on offer.
Ronan Rafferty, David Feherty, Darren Clarke, Eamonn Darcy, Des Smyth, Philip Walton and Christy O'Connor Jnr are the Irish golfers to precede McGinley in "Millionaires' Row", which is headed by Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer. Between them, they have won seven times this year and both are on the brink of topping £6 million in career winnings.
There is also a rich incentive for Padraig Harrington in this penultimate event of the 1997 European season, which will also decide the composition of the Volvo Masters field and the all-exempt list of 115 players for next year.
Harrington is currently 13th in the Volvo ranking and, if he maintains his top 15 place, will be sure of a place in both the Open and US Open fields in 1998. He will also come under serious consideration for invitations to the US Masters and US PGA Championship.
Chasing him hard are Mark James, who succeeded Harrington as Spanish Open champion at La Moraleja last May, and Ryder Cup player Thomas Bjorn, who overtook him for Rookie of the Year honours in 1996. However Bjorn has joined Darren Clarke, Per-Ulrik Johansson and Lee Westwood in making late withdrawals from this event, giving Harrington the opportunity to stretch his lead of £12,500 over the Dane.
"I need to take my opportunities here," said Harrington, who will be playing the Sarazen World Open in Atlanta, then the World Cup in partnership with McGinley, before he gets married in Dublin on December 6th.
"Staying in the top 15, and hopefully moving up into the top 10 is my target, although my game is a little inconsistent at the moment." Both Harrington and McGinley were on duty for Ireland in the Alfred Dunhill Cup at St Andrews last week, where the former took the opportunity for some extra tuition from coach Howard Bennett.
Their chances and those of Seve Ballesteros have been improved by another injury to the accident-prone Sam Torrance who yesterday pulled out of the tournament with a neck strain after playing only 12 holes of the pro-am preamble. Last year, Torrance was disqualified from this tournament after oversleeping at his hotel.
Ballesteros is optimistic he can end two years without a win, on the course where he was third last year. "I am playing well at the moment," he said after trying out a new titanium-headed driver which kept him out of the rough in a pro-am 68. "My target is to do better than I did last time." For Des Smyth and David Higgins, this is the last opportunity to qualify for next season from the merit list. Smyth who is 123rd, needs to move up into the top 115, but if he fails to manage it, will still be able to play in 1998 because of his top-40 place in the all-time money list. "I am approaching the time when decisions have to be made," he said realistically. "The red lights are flashing for me."
They certainly are for Higgins, who languishes 157th in the rankings with only £21,252 to his credit from 28 events. Nothing less than a top-three finish will save the Waterville youngster from a return to the Tour Qualifying School.
For his last-ditch effort, he has hired veteran caddie John Davidson, known as "The Professor" because of the time he spent at Oxford University. Davidson had long spells with Ian Woosnam and Ken Brown, and in his younger days carried for Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Tony Jacklin. Raymond Burns is also in the line-up of 108 players chasing a top award of £75,000 and a runners-up cheque of £50,000.
