Goosen's the winner on merit

In the end it proved a step too far. After a season that, for Padraig Harrington, had started on the west coast of the United States, and taken him to virtually all corners of the globe in his quest to be Europe's number one golfer, it finished with the Irishman occupying second place - a position that has proved to be a common bedfellow for much of his career - in the Order of Merit, behind Retief Goosen.

Harrington's final action in the Volvo Masters at Valderrama yesterday was to tap in a bogey putt on the last green. In truth, though, his dream of leapfrogging Goosen had expired long before that simple action. From a horrendous start in Thursday's first round when he incurred a two-stroke penalty for incorrectly repairing a pitch mark off the green, Harrington had been forced to climb the highest mountain without any reserves of oxygen . . . and ultimately he was not up to the task.

"Disappointed, obviously," was his immediate assessment of his futile late season charge to overhaul Goosen in the moneylist. "The past few weeks have been interesting for me, (it was) something I have never experienced before. But, you know, you have to go through these things once or twice before you learn from them. It's all about experience and maybe what I have gone through will help me win a major in the future."

In 22 starts on the European Tour this season, Harrington earned €2,334,655. That was to prove short of Goosen (by €25,472) who successfully defended his Order of Merit title. "It's like when you win a tournament, you want to try to successfully defend it. It's the same with the Order of Merit. I wanted to defend it but I consider myself quite lucky. Padraig was playing really well and I thought he would definitely pull it off," said Goosen.

Indeed, Goosen also insisted that he had sorted out his problems with Harrington, which arose from comments he made at the Madrid Open three weeks ago claiming that the Irishman was the slowest player on tour. In actual fact, the number of time warnings given to players this season leave Scotland's Raymond Russell with that unwelcome distinction. "Me and Padraig have sorted it all out. I've apologised and it is all the end of the story now."

A year ago, when Harrington also finished runner-up in the Order of Merit, the race was well and truly over before the final counting event. This time, though, it was different as it came down to the wire. Harrington candidly admitted that the pressure got to him. "Without a doubt," he said, "but it wasn't a nervous kind of pressure. It was the pressure of the situation from the outside distractions, not necessarily on the golf course. I was probably out of character the last couple of weeks, and it was an interesting experience. I'll learn from it. It was just how I applied myself to the task, my preparation, things like that.

"If I was in the same situation again, I would do things differently. But I don't regret the way I did things because I didn't know any better. I had never experienced anything like this in my life. In a normal tournament, there is only pressure the last nine holes or six holes or whatever. This was a totally new experience because it meant a lot to me to win the Order of Merit.

"I remember coming up to the Ryder Cup, and noticing other players and how their form was poor because there was so much attention and it distracted them from playing golf. And it was pretty similar to what happened me the last three weeks."

However, he insisted coming so close would strengthen his resolve, explaining: "I've really got to say I am focused on other areas as priorities but, hopefully, if the situation presents itself, I'll know better the next time going into the last few events."