GOLF: Padraig Harrington looks you in the eye and there is no hint of despair, no sign of exasperation.

Although he has failed to carry through the momentum of a crazy, non-stop winning end to the old year, when he won three tournaments in as many months, the Dubliner is not ready to press the panic button as he contemplates a failure to secure a top-10 finish in three starts this season.

In fact, it's almost as if he expected such a slow restart to his season. Harrington, who stayed on in Dubai to continue practising before heading further on up the Gulf to Doha this evening for this week's Qatar Masters, said: "I'd like to be ready for the Players' Championship in a fortnight, but definitely by the US Masters. If I play through Augusta and feel I am still not sharp, then it will be time to make some reassessments."

Unlike Tiger Woods, who re-emerged from a nine-week hiatus, during which time he also had knee surgery, by winning his first event, the Buick Invitational, and who has since added the world matchplay, Harrington's reappearance on the circuit after a similar break has not set the world on fire. He finished tied-14th in the Malaysian Open, was a second-round loser (for tied-17th) in the world matchplay, and finished tied-47th in the Dubai Desert Classic.

Harrington, though, is philosophical about it all. "I always tend to start slowly in a season," he insisted, "but I felt in the last two rounds of Dubai that things were coming right. When you spend so much time on the practice ground, your swing becomes a bit wooden and you need tournament play to get back the sharpness."

One aspect of his game that particularly pleased him, although some way short of the perfection he would desire, was his putting. The statistics on Sunday showed he had only 26 putts, but, in fact, he used the putter 31 times - including five times from just off the green - and, for someone leading the putting statistics on the European Tour, he concluded that "statistics can be very misleading".

In fact, the one statistic that doesn't lie is the stroke average, which he won last season and would like to repeat again this season. "That's the one you want," he insisted.

Harrington is one of six Irish players - along with Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane - in the field for the Qatar Masters. And, like Harrington, McGinley also decided to spend a couple of extra days in Dubai before making the trip up. In his case, however, it was mainly to do with an attempt to finally shrug off a chest infection that has bothered him for up to a month: he is on his third course of antibiotics. But his game does appear to be coming round.

McGinley's fear at the start of the season was that he wouldn't be able to keep up with the long hitters off the tee, but a move to a prototype TaylorMade driver, identical to the one Darren Clarke is using, and a new Maxfli M3 ball has enabled the Dubliner to add some 25 yards onto his drive.

"That's a big plus for me, because I've closed a gap that threatened to appear," said McGinley.

While Harrington will take a week's break after Qatar before moving on to a three-week stint in America that takes in the Players, the BellSouth and the Masters, McGinley's drop down the world rankings means he has no US sojourn to take this year, and his next appearance after Qatar won't come until the Canaries Open.

Harrington, incidentally, won't reappear in Europe until the Benson and Hedges at the Belfry.

Peter Lawrie's first top-20 of the season in Dubai moved him up to 79th in the Order of Merit - a place ahead of Gary Murphy - and the Dubliner believes he can learn from his final-day experience at the Emirates. He arrived in Qatar yesterday ahead of Thursday's tournament, and has also confirmed that he will play in next week's Madeira Island Open.

"My number one objective this season is to have earned enough money by June or July to keep my card for next year. That will take a lot of pressure off later in the year if I can manage that," said Lawrie.