Harrington merits latest honour

GOLF: As distractions go, yesterday in a rain-swept Dublin city hotel was a pleasant one for Padraig Harrington, whose main pre-occupation these days is in chasing the European Tour's Order of Merit title.

In putting pen to paper, and reaping the financial benefits of doing so, the Dubliner has become the official face of Irish golf.

Harrington - who has added next week's Italian Open to his itinerary, sandwiched as it is between this week's Madrid Open and the season-ending Volvo Masters in two weeks time - will be used by Bord Fáilte in a myriad of advertising and marketing campaigns around the globe over the next three years and has also found space on his bag for a "Golfing in Ireland" logo.

Of his newest sponsorship, announced by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, Harrington remarked: "This is very big for me, not just because I am representing a great product but because I am representing my country. What more could you ask for than to represent your country and have it on your golf bag? It's such a nice thing to represent your country on a formal basis. I am quite proud of that actually."

He added: "It is always great to be associated with something you believe in. I am passionate about Ireland, its golf courses and related attractions. I'm delighted to be selected as a spokesperson and promoter of Irish golf."

Currently ranked number six in the official world rankings, Harrington's image will be used by Bord Fáilte in promoting this country as a major golfing destination. The golf tourism industry is now worth an estimated €144 million to the Irish economy with around 220,000 people coming to Ireland annually for golf related holidays.

Harrington, though, continues his quest to top the European Tour money list this week when he competes in the Madrid Open at Club de Campo, a course where he has won two of his five European Tour titles: the 1996 Spanish Open and the 2000 BBVA Turespana Open. Ironically enough, his chief protagonist of the Order of Merit title Retief Goosen - last year's European number one - is defending his Madrid Open title. Apart from Harrington, other Irish players competing in Madrid include Des Smyth, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell.

The decision by Harrington to add the Italian Open to his schedule doesn't come as any great surprise. Basically, he has to give himself every opportunity to win the Order of Merit title - "For me, it is right up there, just below winning majors really. The pinnacle of an individual's professional career is winning a major tournament but the Order of Merit is next to it," he insisted - and his win in the recent Dunhill Links has changed his entire approach to the end of the season.

"The next three weeks has taken on a different look to it after winning the Dunhill," he admitted. "I probably would have tried to play the end of season out, try to win a tournament. Now I'm focused not just on what I am doing but also on what Retief is doing. That win has changed my focus, changed my end of year. I'm going all out to win the Order of Merit."

In many ways, his early defeat in the Cisco World Matchplay - losing in the quarter-final to Sergio Garcia - did him an unintentional favour in pursuit of the money list. "If it had been a long week at the Cisco, I don't think I would have been capable of playing in Italy, considering the following week is the most important week of all, the Volvo Masters," he said.

Harrington also claimed he was distracted last week at the matchplay in that he worked on his long game with coach Bob Torrance but he doesn't anticipate doing any work on his game once he gets to Madrid.

"The thing is, you never really know until you get to a tournament. If you turn up and it is not quite right, you start working again. I am hoping that I don't have to do too much work on my long game and just concentrate more on my short game for the next couple of weeks."

His duel with Goosen over the next few weeks is set to add an intriguing element to the end-of-season schedule. "It would be nice to have some sort of a lead going into the last tournament when it will be more of a head-to-head situation. If I am slightly ahead of him, it just means I have to finish ahead of him (in the Volvo Masters) rather than the other way around," he said.

"I'm a little distracted by it all at the moment but, then, I am not in tournament mode yet. Once the tournament starts, I can focus on what I am doing and will not be looking at what Retief is doing.

"This week, I'm not even trying to win the Order of Merit when I am playing the Madrid Open - I've got to be trying to win the Madrid Open.

"It's a question of working the next couple of days to narrow my focus so that I am not distracted by the Order of Merit. By Thursday, I'll be more clued in on what I am doing."

Meanwhile, Peter Lawrie's tiedsecond place finish in the Fortis Bank Open in Holland last weekend has brought him up to eighth place on the Challenge Tour Order of Merit and virtually guaranteed him his full tour card for next season.

This week's final event on the Challenge Tour is the Grand Final - confined to the top 45 players on the money list - and it would take a bizarre turn of events for the Dubliner to be edged out of the top 15 on the Order of Merit, all of whom claim full cards.

Damien McGrane (24th) and Gary Murphy (29th) are also competing in the Grand Final in Bordeaux, starting on Thursday.