Harrington's status still improving

If, on the face of it, the statistic - that of his 25th career runner-up finish - is a stark and possibly grim one, the bigger picture is that Padraig Harrington, who completes his year's work in this week's Target World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in California, has consolidated his position as the leading European player in the world rankings

Back in March of last year, when (ironically) he was runner-up in the Players' Championship to Davis Love III at Sawgrass, the Dubliner first moved above Sergio Garcia to be the top European player in the world. On that occasion, he moved from 10th up to eighth in the world rankings and, now, just about two seasons later, Harrington is ensconced in sixth position.

At the time of becoming Europe's top-ranked player in the world, Harrington observed that he hadn't included it as one of his 16 goals for 2003 but that it would be added retrospectively. Significantly, he also observed at the time he would be far happier being Europe's top player if he was ranked better than eighth in the world.

These days, and for most of the intermitting 21 months, he has improved that ranking. Harrington's runner-up finish to Miguel Angel Jimenez in the Hong Kong Open on Sunday was his fifth of the year, coming on top of the TPC at Sawgrass in March, the Deutsche Bank TPC of Europe in Heidelberg in May, the Buick Classic in June, and the Nissan Irish Open in July.

Against that, his only win on the PGA European Tour this year came in the German Masters in August (his victory in the Hong Kong Open, part of the 2004 schedule, actually came at the end of 2003), while he also won the Irish PGA Championship, played at St Margaret's in April.

In many ways, it's an indication of how Harrington has come up in the game, and the expectations placed on him, that such a season where he was the leading qualifier for the European Ryder Cup team and when he finished third on the Volvo Order of Merit should be deemed a so-called average season for the Dubliner.

This perception is based mainly on his performances in the majors where he finished tied-13th (US Masters), tied-31st (US Open) missed the cut (in the British Open) and tied-45th (US PGA).

Whether Harrington can remain at world number six over the winter months is a moot point. There are no world ranking points on offer in this week's World Challenge - which is a specially sanctioned tournament on the US Tour schedule promoted by Tiger Woods - and Harrington will then take a nine-week break from competition before recommencing tournament play in the Malaysian Open, a co-sanctioned event on the European and Asian Tours in February, the week before the Accenture Matchplay at La Costa.

Incidentally, Paul McGinley, who underwent knee surgery almost a fortnight ago, has also confirmed he will play in the Malaysian Open in the hope for forcing his way into the field for the Accenture.

The top 64 players available off the world rankings comprise the field for the matchplay and, as things stand, McGinley is 68th.

Harrington finishes up his season's work in rather familiar surroundings at Sherwood Country Club. Two years ago, the Irishman held off a late charge from Woods to win the title and, last year, Harrington finished third behind winner Love and runner-up Woods.

This year's field is confined to 16 players, the top 12 available players from the world rankings plus four invitees.

With $5.25 million on offer - of which $1.2 million goes to the winner - it's a tournament that has attracted a strong end-of-season line-up with world number one Vijay Singh joined by Woods, Harrington, Love, Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk, Chris DiMarco, Chad Campbell, Kenny Perry, Todd Hamilton and Stephen Ames (from the world rankings) and by four special exemptions in Jay Haas, Fred Couples, John Daly and Colin Montgomerie.

World number one Vijay Singh, the game's hottest player over the last 18 months, was named the PGA Tour player of the year yesterday. The Fijian, who became the first player in tour history to earn more than $10 million in a single season, was the clear-cut choice after balloting of the tour members.