GolfBy the time Padraig Harrington gets home to the foothills of the Dublin mountains next week, he'll have traversed every time zone in less than a month. But the travel will have been worth every inconvenience.
From Sun City to Hong Kong and now on to California, where this week he defends his Target World Challenge title, the Dubliner - belatedly in the year - has finally confirmed just why he is eighth in the official world rankings.
In his own words, 2003 had been an "average year" for Harrington; but the success in the Hong Kong Open - the first counting event of the 2004 season - has made it a "good year". In fact, since his last win, the Deutsche Bank TPC of Europe back in May, Harrington had managed only three top-10 finishes (in the US Open, the AmEx Championship and the Madrid Open), and so a return to winning ways was, if anything, overdue.
But it's amazing how a win can transform perceptions. Now, Harrington - who defends his title in the $5 million, Tiger Woods-promoted World Challenge at Ventura County, California, - can look forward to an eight-week break before resuming full tournament play in the spring, probably at the Malaysian Open the week before the Accenture World Matchplay at La Quinta, outside San Diego.
"Without a doubt, this win is important to me," insisted Harrington, who for the second year running can spend Christmas as number one on the Volvo Order of Merit. "If I hadn't got off to this flying start to the 2004 season I would have been sitting at home thinking everyone else is getting off to a head start. It means I can relax, do my practice and rest on my laurels a bit over the winter break and just know that others are catching up on me rather than passing me by."
Perhaps of more importance in the greater scheme of things is that the win in Hong Kong - unlike the limited-field events in Sun City and this week in California - have given him precious world ranking points. Harrington, in fact, has moved up two places to eighth in the world thanks to starting the season with a win for the second successive year. And he has also moved to third place, behind Lee Westwood and Fredrik Jacobson, in the European Ryder Cup world points table. Darren Clarke, meanwhile, is now fifth in that particular table.
However, Harrington is still two positions behind his highest official world ranking - he got as high as sixth the week after his Dunhill Links success last year and moved to seventh the week following his TPC of Europe triumph earlier this year - and is set to finish the year one place behind where he stood this time last year.
Harrington's win at the Hong Kong Open was his eighth on the European PGA Tour. The others were the Spanish Open (1996), Sao Paulo Brazil Open (2000), Madrid Open (2000), Volvo Masters (2001), Dunhill Links Championship (2002), BMW Asian Open (technically 2003), and TPC of Europe (2003) - while other wins in his professional career include the World Cup (with Paul McGinley) in 1997, the Irish PGA title in 1998 and the Target World Challenge a year ago when he fended off Woods coming down the stretch.
This week's 16-competitor Target World Challenge has $1.2 million on offer to the winner, and Woods - who has a win, two runners-up finishes and a 10th place in the four previous stagings - will again be the host.
Others in the field include Clarke, along with US Masters champion Mike Weir, British Open champion Ben Curtis, US PGA champion Shaun Micheel, world number two Vijay Singh, Davis Love, David Toms, Kenny Perry, Nick Price, Justin Leonard, KJ Choi and Chris DiMarco.
Fred Couples and Jay Haas have been give special exemptions so they can participate in the event which, for most of the field, will signal the end of the year's competitive play.
Meanwhile, Woods has confirmed he will play in next year's Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates club, from March 4th-7th. The tournament will be played in the week after the World Matchplay. Woods was originally due to play in this year's Classic but withdrew due to the political uncertainly in the region at the time. His only previous appearance in the event was in 2001 when he finished tied-second with Harrington behind Thomas Bjorn.
