Clarke forced to miss World Cup

Tour news: Darren Clarke has conceded that the logistics of travel and his end-of-season playing schedule and commitments to sponsors makes it impractical for him to team up with Padraig Harrington for next month's World Cup in Spain.

It means Harrington and Paul McGinley will form Ireland's partnership in the $4 million team event for the eighth straight year.

But Clarke is likely to review his programme for 2005 so he can once again play in the competition.

"I really want to play in the World Cup again," he said. "I think that Padraig and myself would have a great chance of winning. Personally, I've won two world championship events (the Accenture Matchplay and the NEC Invitational) and I want to have as many chances as I can have to win more. They're big events."

Although he had hoped to rearrange some contractual commitments at this late stage to facilitate possibly playing with Harrington in Seville on November 18th-21st, Clarke yesterday accepted it was not possible to alter arrangements.

The week before the World Cup, he is playing in the Visa Taiheiyo Masters in Shizuoka and, on the following Monday, just four days before the World Cup starts, he has a corporate commitment to Barclays Capital - his principal blue-chip sponsor - in Japan. The next week, he is due to undertake further sponsors' commitments and also play the first of two tournaments in South Africa.

In fact, the Ulsterman's schedule is chock-a-block after deciding to add next week's Greater Greensboro Open on the US Tour to his schedule in an attempt to consolidate his place in the $6 million Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta which is confined to the leading 30 players on the US money list.

"Getting into the Tour Championship has been one of my goals. I played it last year and I really want to play it again," he said.

As things stand, Clarke is 26th in the table with winnings on the US Tour of $1,886,019. However, an indication of his precarious position is that the 31st-placed player, Tim Herron, is only $178,942 behind.

Clarke believes that securing a top-10 finish in Greensboro would ensure he won't be overtaken and will secure him a place in the Tour Championship.

Clarke's packed schedule over the coming months is as follows, which underlines just why including the World Cup at this late stage wasn't feasible.

This week he plays the dunhill links championship in Scotland. On Monday, he has a corporate commitment in the United States, followed by playing in the Greater Greensboro Open. He then has a week off followed, in successive weeks, by the Volvo Masters, the Tour Championship, the Taiheiyo Masters, the week of the World Cup off, then two back-to-back events in South Africa: the Nelson Mandela Invitational in Cape Town and the Sun City Nedbank, bringing his season into December.

Unlike Clarke, Harrington is not a full member of the US Tour but, as things stand, would qualify for the Tour Championship in Atlanta because his earnings are currently better the 30th-placed player on the American money list.

However, if the Dubliner decides to play, it will have a knock-on effect on his schedule for next season as he would have to increase the number of tournaments he plays in the States.

"It's an unwritten rule that you take up tour membership the following season if you play in the Tour Championship (as a non-member)," said Harrington. "I would have to find three more events than I played this year which would be hard to find.

"It would mean dropping three somewhere else. I'll have to wait and see how I feel over the next few weeks before making a decision.

"To be honest, I had intended to do it (take up US membership next year) but, with the Irish Open coming back to a May date, it makes it harder to do. There were three lovely tournaments in the US around that time I would have liked."

Naturally, McGinley - who won the event with Harrington in 1997, before it became a WGC competition - is happy to take the place of Clarke in Ireland's team for the World Cup.

He is 65th in the world rankings but, given his form on this side of the Atlantic, McGinley believes that isn't a true reflection of his position and he has made that view known to IMG, who run the rankings.

There is a meeting of the world rankings committee this week and there has been a strong lobby to alter the criteria to give the European Tour a fairer balance.

"I don't think we should be equated with the Americans," said McGinley, who is a member of the European Tour players' committee, "but I certainly feel the gap should be closer. It's self-perpetuating.

"There's x amount of points in the tournament and, then, depending on how many top-ranked players are in that tournament it adds to the points. So it is top heavy in America and you're playing for more and more and more and it is hard for the Europeans to compete.

"You just have to look at the scoring on the European Tour and the standard of golf to know how good it is but it's currently at a disadvantage in terms of world ranking points."

McGinley has confirmed he will undergo knee surgery that will entail two months' recuperation over the winter months. It means he will be unable to chase world-ranking points in the Far East before the end of the year at which stage the top 50 in the world rankings will earn invites to next year's US Masters.

"I'll have enough opportunities to do it," said McGinley, who plays this week's dunhill links, the Madrid Open in a fortnight's time and the Volvo Masters.

"It's like the Ryder Cup team, if I play well, I'll get into the top 50. If I don't, I don't."