Hectic start for Pádraig

IT’S ALL about a fresh start in a new season and both Pádraig Harrington and Tiger Woods, two players who experienced some tribulation last year, have firmed-up their early-season itineraries.

Harrington, who has slipped to 85th in the world from a high of third, flies out to South Africa later this week for a hectic start to his season that will see him play four tournaments in five weeks on three continents, while Woods yesterday confirmed he will kick-start his own US Tour at next month’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament.

In fact, Woods’s seasonal debut on the US Tour will be his second outing as the former long-time world number one – now down to 23rd in the rankings – will resume tournament play on the European Tour, at the Abu Dhabi Championship on January 26th-29th.

Harrington’s confirmed early-season schedule will see him play next week’s Volvo Champions’ tournament in Fancourt before heading on to Abu Dhabi and, then, after a week’s break, crossing the Atlantic to play back-to-back events on the US Tour, at Pebble Beach and the Los Angeles Open, as he bids to move up the rankings and claim a place in the limited-field 64-man Accenture-WGC Matchplay championship in Arizona.

Indeed, Harrington’s first half of the year will see him play mainly on the US Tour with his first appearance in Europe unlikely to come until the BMW PGA at Wentworth in May.

Of his imminent return to tournament play in South Africa next week, Harrington remarked: “I’ve been hard at work (over the winter) and itching to see if all the work has paid off . . . towards the end of last year, I felt I was regaining my consistency and was feeling more comfortable with my game. Hopefully it will all come together at the Volvo as it is a title I would love to add to my CV and it would enable me to get the season off to a good start.”

Woods’s seasonal outing will come a week later in Abu Dhabi, which has been a long-term commitment, but, having missed the Pebble Beach Pro-Am since 2002, he has decided to add it back onto his schedule this season.

“I’m excited to start my PGA Tour season at the ATT Pebble Beach National Pro-Am,” Woods said on his website. “ATT is a great partner to my Foundation, and I’m looking forward to playing in this event. I haven’t been to this tournament lately, but I have a lot of good memories at Pebble. It will be fun going back.”

Woods’ best memory at Pebble is undoubtedly the dominating, 15-stroke win he took at the US Open in 2000. When the US Open returned to the scenic course nestled on the shores of the Pacific Ocean 10 years later, Woods tied for fourth. “It’s always been one of my favourite spots,” said Woods, who ended his 2011 campaign by winning the Chevron World Challenge in December.

Woods has played the ATT Pebble Beach National Pro-Amsix times. He finished second in his 1997 debut and placed 13th or better on two other occasions in addition to the win. “It was great to finish 2011 strong,” said Woods. “More importantly, it’s good to be healthy again, and I’m hoping to get off to a fast start.”

Elsewhere, US Masters champion Charl Schwartzel will be seeking to claim a hat-trick of titles by successfully defending the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg on the European Tour this week. Should Schwartzel make it a hat-trick, he would join an exclusive band of players to win the same official European Tour event three years in a row, matching the achievements of Ian Woosnam (1990-92 Monte Carlo Open), Nick Faldo (1991-93 Irish Open), Colin Montgomerie (1998-2000 PGA Championship), Ernie Els (2002-04 Heineken Classic) and Woods (2005-07 WGC – CA Championship and WGC – Bridgestone Invitational).

This week’s event has three Irish players in the field: Damien McGrane and Simon Thornton each missed the cut in the Africa Open last weekend, while Peter Lawrie is making his first appearance of the season.