Gary Murphy starts his European Tour campaign in next week's South African Open in Durban with a mission to make a significant move in the world rankings.

Currently sandwiched between Hennie Otto and Yasuku Miyazato at 287th in the latest rankings - but, oddly enough, ahead of Rich Beem, who was the US PGA champion just two years ago - the Kilkenny man believes he is a better player than his ranking would indicate.

Indeed, apart from his putting statistics, the numbers would back up that assessment. Murphy finished ninth in driving accuracy and fairways-hit on the Reuters stats for the European Tour in 2004 and 39th in greens-in-regulation . . . but averaged 30.3 putts-per-round in finishing 138th in that particular category.

"I am a putt and a half outside where I want to be with my putting," said Murphy, "and that is where you have to be to win tournaments, or to at least get into contention.

"An improvement of a putt or so a round would push me up about 50 places in the Order of Merit and my goal is to get into the top 150 in the world at least and the top 40 in the moneylist by the end of the year."

Murphy has decided to revert to an old Scotty Cameron putter for the season, and has spent a considerable amount of time working on his putting and his short game over the winter after getting an artificial putting green in his garden.

"I am quietly confident that I can improve my game and step up another notch. With the standard on tour these days, if you stand still you are actually going backwards," said Murphy, who starts his season with a trip to South Africa next week, followed by tournaments in Singapore and Australia.

While Padraig Harrington doesn't return to competitive play until the Malaysian Masters in late February, the Dubliner's reign as the leading European player in the world rankings - a distinction he has held for over a year - could end next week, even though Sergio Garcia is not playing in this week's Sony Open.

As things stand, Harrington is sixth in the world with an average of 5.42 points and Garcia is seventh with an average of 5.39. But the vagaries of the system could see the Spaniard jump ahead of the Irishman in next week's rankings.