Robert Karlsson is on the verge of becoming the first Swedish player to win the Order of Merit, thanks to transforming himself on and off the course. Despite Pádraig Harrington claiming back-to-back major titles at the Open and USPGA Championship this year, Karlsson leads his Ryder Cup partner by €297,425 at the top of the money list.
The 39-year-old has accumulated 12 top-10 finishes and also claimed back-to-back victories in the Mercedes-Benz Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship either side of his second cup appearance at Valhalla.
His performances in the major championships were also second only to Harrington, with eighth in the Masters, fourth in the US Open, seventh in the Open and 20th in the USPGA Championship helping him amass more than €2,695,248 in prize money.
Second place at this week's season-ending Volvo Masters would secure the Order of Merit title, even if Harrington were to win, and Karlsson puts his amazing consistency down to learning to control a volcanic temper.
"I worked on my attitude on and off the golf course," admitted Karlsson. "I'm not wasting a lot of energy on bad shots and bad rounds.
"My toughest situation this year was obviously that 74 in the final round of the BMW Championship (when he blew a four-shot lead), and I came back the week after and finished second in Wales.
"That was such big proof for me that I can handle pretty much any situation now, and that is the week that I am most proud of in my career actually, to play as well as I did the week after I've had a really bad last round and made a mess of it."
Asked to expand on the "wasted energy" after bad rounds, the 6ft 5in Swede added: "I would have been hacked off, I would have wasted two days of being really, really angry.
"I would not have been able to leave that week behind, and now it's like, 'Okay, it's a new week now, what happened, happened, I'm going to learn from this'."
The fact that Harrington has played little over half of the tournaments he has is not lost on Karlsson but he is not about to feel sorry for his opponent in that regard.
"The Order of Merit is a bit funny because it depends so much on how many tournaments you're playing. Pádraig has played maybe 12 but I've played 23 or something like that, so it's a bit unfair.
"It's like Manchester United against Arsenal and one has to play 12 matches and the other 22, it's not really a fair judgment of the season I think.
"But if I win it, I'm not going to complain, put it that way."
In total four members of Europe's Ryder Cup team can still win the Order of Merit at Valderrama, with Lee Westwood and Miguel Angel Jimenez also in the frame.
