For the third time in four years, Darren Clarke will finish as runner-up on the European Tour's Order of Merit, but, rather than be too downbeat, the world number nine - who is taking a week's break before reappearing at the season-ending Volvo Masters in Spain - is convinced his time will come.
Unlike last year, when Clarke was only pipped by Lee Westwood in the final counting event, the American Express championship, this time the race has finished before the season is over with Retief Goosen in an unassailable position with two tournaments to go. "Hopefully my time will come," said Clarke, who felt that any momentum he had going in pursuit of the South African went after the terrorist attacks in the United States.
"I was playing really nicely until the St Louis world championship event (the American Express) was called off, but the putter has let me down since. I've not been able to convert my chances," he explained. It is the sixth consecutive season that Clarke has finished in the top 10 in the moneylist.
Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley are all missing this week's Italian Open before the Volvo Masters starts an end-of-season stint of traversing the globe: Harrington and McGinley compete in the following week's World Cup in Japan, while Harrington and Clarke are both playing in the Million Dollar challenge in Sun City and, then, the Williams World Challenge in California. Clarke is also considering adding the South African players' championship - which has world ranking points on offer - to his schedule between Sun City and California.
Such luxuries of selecting when and where to play are outside the whims of a number of other Irishmen on the European circuit - and David Higgins's failure to secure a top-10 finish in Madrid means he heads to the Italian Open this week still fighting to secure his full playing card for next season. If he fails to break into the top 115 on the moneylist after Italy (he is currently 122nd), then another visit to final qualifying school awaits. Other Irish entries in Italy are Ronan Rafferty, Gary Murphy, Paddy Gribben, Philip Walton and Damian Mooney.
Meanwhile, just when hope was replacing despair, Raymond Burns - who last played full-time on the European Tour in 1998 - has been knocked again.
A broken wrist, suffered in a freak accident while he was in the United States preparing for next week's second phase of the European Tour qualifying school, is likely to keep him off the golf course for up to six months and has brought a halt to his ambitions to return to the circuit.
The accident couldn't have come at a worse time. Having successfully survived the first stage of qualifying school in England last month, Burns took the opportunity to fly out to Palm Springs in California for some warm-weather preparations for next week's second stage in Spain. However, a slip on a rug - "a pure accident," he said - has left him with the injury that has ruined his plans.
"It's a real pity that it has happened now, because I could finally see some light at the end of the tunnel. I've worked hard with my coach Don Patterson, who got me back to playing my natural game, and I had a lot more confidence in what I was doing. I'd been practising really hard, lost a stone and a half in weight, and I was coming back to my game nice and quietly. I've had set-backs in the past and, I suppose, I am going to have to live with this one and come back again," said Burns.
