Entering a new golfing year, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley are the only Irish players in the top 200 of the world rankings. The list will be updated next Monday after a resumption of tournament play this week with the staging of the Mercedes Championships in the US and the Victorian Open on the Tour of Australasia.

European Tour activities don't resume until next week when the Alfred Dunhill South African PGA Championship gets under way in Johannesburg on January 14th.

The rise and rise of Clarke to his current position of 17th in the world has tended to hide the inadequacies of his compatriots. This is highlighted by the fact that on this day five years ago, Ireland had seven players in the world's leading 200.

At a time when Nick Faldo was the world number one, Greg Norman was second and Bernhard Langer was third, Ireland's leading players were: 45, Ronan Rafferty; 58, Clarke; 69, David Feherty; 141, Christy O'Connor Jnr; 157, Des Smyth; 161, Eamonn Darcy; 170, McGinley.

An Irish decline was evident at the start of 1995 when the country's representation in the top 200 had been reduced to five - Clarke (74), Feherty (89), Rafferty (92), McGinley (161) and Smyth (169). Granted, that year was also notable for the splendid showing of Philip Walton, who won two tournaments on the way to a splendid showing in the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill.

Going back to the start of this decade, one is reminded that players like Rafferty, Smyth, Darcy, Feherty and Walton were winning tournaments at a time when Europe had Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam and Langer at the peak of their formidable powers. Of the current bunch, Clarke has been the only Irish tournament winner since McGinley captured the Oki Pro-Am in October 1997. Entering the Mercedes event, the world's top 10 are: 1, Tiger Woods; 2, Mark O'Meara; 3, David Duval; 4, Davis Love III; 5, Ernie Els; 6, Nick Price; 7, Colin Montgomerie; 8, Lee Westwood; 9, Vijay Singh; 10, Phil Mickelson.

As with the Irish situation, the comparison with five years ago is fascinating. From a time when the highest-ranked American player was Fred Couples at number five, the US now fill the top four places. Yet they still have only five players in the top 10 - as they had at the start of 1994, when Paul Azinger (6), Tom Kite (8), Love (9) and Corey Pavin (10) filled the other placings.

The world rankings take on particular relevance this year when players in the top 64 will qualify for the inaugural World Championship tournaments. These are the Andersen Consulting Matchplay Championship (Carlsbad, February 24th to 28th), NEC Invitational (Firestone, August 26th to 29th) and American Express Strokeplay Championship (Valderrama, November 4th to 7th).

A highly-significant bonus, however, is that for the first time, the top 50 in the current list will receive invitations to the US Masters on April 8th to 11th, along with the top 50 during the fourth week before the Masters. That second list will come on March 8th, after the completion of the Doral Ryder Open and the Portuguese Open.

The most marked improvement of any player in the world rankings during the last 12 months has been achieved by England's Lee Westwood, up from 23rd to eighth.

Other noteworthy improvements have been by Duval (13th to third), and O'Meara (10th to second). Clarke leaped from 36th to 17th, equalling the best-ever placing by an Irishman, Ronan Rafferty's in the 1989 season.

Harrington, however, has slipped from 78th to 106th while McGinley has dropped back from 102nd to 147th.