Harrington battles to cure his ills

Apart from pure monetary terms, Padraig Harrington's early season odyssey to the other side of the globe has proven to be a fruitless experience. Two missed cuts in two tournaments is a statistic you don't normally associate with the Dubliner and, as a consequence, he has slipped down to 53rd in the world rankings.

What's more worrying is that his malaise comes so close to the Andersen Matchplay, the first of the season's four World Golf Championship events. Harrington makes his debut in that particular event in just over two weeks, at Carlsbad, California, on February 23rd-27th.

So he'll be seeking to remedy some of those problems which have crept into his game when he continues his globetrotting in the Malaysian Open at Templer Park Golf and Country Club in Kuala Lumpur, which starts tomorrow. This is the final week of qualifying for Carlsbad, after which the top 64 players on the world ranking will be invited to compete. Harrington's place in that field is not under threat - 11 Europeans are currently destined to compete for the $1 million top prize: Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Jesper Parnevik, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Thomas Bjorn, Paul Lawrie, Bernhard Langer, Darren Clarke and Harrington - but this will be his final tournament before he competes in that matchplay tournament.

Last year, Harrington finished tied-fourth in the Malaysian Open (when only a missed two-and-a-half footer on the 72nd hole prevented him from sharing second place behind Gerry Norquist), but the tournament has moved to a different course. The only similarity will be the severe humidity.

Harrington will be hoping that his run of missed cuts finishes this week where the only other Irish competitor will be tour rookie Gary Murphy.

Paul McGinley, who is the leading Irishman in the Order of Merit, in 21st place with prizemoney of €45,932, has decided to miss out on Malaysia, but will resume his schedule at next week's Portuguese Open.

Tom Lehman has confirmed he will compete in the JP McManus Pro-Am at Limerick Golf Club in July.