European Tour news:Padraig Harrington returns to competitive action this week when he tees up in the Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club, Charlotte, North Carolina, to hone his game - he obviously wouldn't object to winning this week - ahead of the season's self styled "fifth major," the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass next week.
The USPGA Tour's leading men return to centre stage this week as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, US Masters' winner Zach Johnson, Vijay Singh illustrate the calibre of the field for the Wachovia.
Also present is the defending champion Jim Furyk, who beat Trevor Immelman in a play-off last year and who is also a former runner-up at this tournament. The field also contains previous winners in Singh, David Toms and Joey Sindelar.
Harrington, who this week has slipped one place to 11th in both the world rankings and European Tour Order of Merit, hasn't played since his seventh place finish at the Masters but his form this year in the States has been reasonably impressive.
Only twice in his seven tournaments on the US tour this season has he finished outside the top 20: 30th at Pebble Beach and finishing 24th at the Shell Houston Open. In two World Golf Championship events he has finished 17th and 19th respectively while he was seventh at the Nissan Open and 13th at the Honda Classic.
The Dubliner, who is also ranked 47th in the FedEx Cup points listings in the USA, will be joined in the field by Darren Clarke fresh from another disappointing outing in Madrid. He has now missed four successive cuts and will be hoping for a change in form.
He is currently languishing in 125th place in the Order of Merit with earnings of 64,092.
In Europe Ireland's Paul McGinley improved form continued in Spain, finishing in a tie for 17th place (which earned him €25,866) to move up to 100th in the Order of Merit.
The rain soaked tournament proved reasonably successful from an Irish perspective with Peter Lawrie (20th) and Graeme McDowell joining McGinley in the top 25.
No one though could catch South African Charl Schwartzel who claimed his second tour title. He finished a shot ahead of India's Jyoti Randhawa, making it exactly 50 European Tour events since his breakthrough victory in the 2005 Dunhill championship in his native country.
The win took him up to sixth in the Order of Merit and also into the Top 50 in the world rankings. He paid tribute to his caddie Ricci Roberts, who had been on the bag of Ernie Els for 16 years. "I have always enjoyed playing in Spain in the past and have done pretty well here so I always felt my first win outside South Africa might come here and so it has turned out.
"Having Ricci on the bag is just superb. He had caddied for Ernie (Els) for about 16 years and they both fancied a change and when I asked if he wanted to caddie for me, I was very happy when he said yes.
"He has so much experience and has seen it all and done it all with something like 50 wins alongside Ernie so I just felt that experience helped give me an advantage. I had been playing well but I was just lacking that edge and I think Ricci gave me that, maybe gave me that one shot edge I had been lacking."
He singled out his 235 yard second shot to the par five, 16th as crucial coming to rest 15 feet the pin. He rolled in the eagle putt, that allowed him the luxury of bogeying the last and still prevailed by a shot.
The South African admitted: "I had perfect yardage for my three iron at the 16th even though the shot was slightly into the wind. But it felt the right club and I put a good swing on it. As soon as I had hit it, I knew it was going to be good."
The European Tour moves to Italy this week and the Telecom Italia Open at the Castello di Tocinasco Golf Club, a tournament won in 2004 by McDowell.
He is not present this week but McGinley, Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy - David Higgins is first reserve - make the trip chasing the first prize cheque of 283,330 along with defending champion, Italy's Francesco Molinari.
He became the first Italian to win his national open since Massimo Mannelli in 1980.
He will be joined in the tournament by his by elder brother, Edoardo, twice a winner on the 2007 European Challenge Tour. Interestingly only two sets of siblings have won on The European Tour; Ignacio and German Garrido and Seve and Manuel Ballesteros.
The Italian tournament will be graced by former major winners Americans Steve Jones (1996 US Open), and last year's US Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman (1996 British Open).
