Higgins targets number one spot

The race ain't over yet, but David Higgins' third win of the season on the Challenge Tour has copper-fastened his bid to take the Order of Merit title. His victory in the Rolex Trophy in Switzerland on Sunday stretched his advantage over second-placed Mikael Lundberg, of Sweden, to over €13,000 with just seven counting tournaments remaining.

With his tour card for 2001 secure, Higgins can now concentrate fully on that particular ambition. If he succeeds, he will emulate the feat of Raymond Burns who topped the Challenge Tour moneylist in 1994. However, Higgins has surpassed Burns's feat in one respect already: he has three tournament wins (NCC Open in Sweden, Hamburg Classic in Germany and Rolex Trophy in Switzerland) to his credit, compared to the two successes that Burns achieved on his way to fending off Michael Campbell for the Order of Merit that year.

This week, Higgins continues his Challenge Tour odyssey by competing in the Formby Hall tournament in England where fellow-countrymen Jim Carvill, Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie and Francis Howley are also entered.

Meanwhile, Des Smyth, who admitted to being "golfed out" after the dual badge tournament in the Slieve Russell two weeks ago, has stuck to his guns and will not compete in this week's BMW International in Munich, despite coming under pressure to retain his tour card for next season.

Smyth intends to resume playing at the Canon European Masters in Switzerland next week which means there are just three Irish players in the field in Munich. Padraig Harrington, with good memories of a second-place finish in the tournament last year which booked his place in the Ryder Cup team, will attempt to defy on-going neck problems while Gary Murphy and Eamonn Darcy are also competing.

Meanwhile, if Pierre Fulke harboured any doubts about his physical ability to play golf at the top level again they were answered in emphatic fashion at Gleneagles on Sunday when he won the Scottish PGA Championship.

The quiet-spoken 29-year-old from Nykoping won the Lancome Trophy in Paris last autumn, but was then forced to spend seven months on the sidelines with a mystery injury to his right wrist.

Fulke thought he had strained the wrist in practice but a trip to a chiropractor in Sweden diagnosed the problem as being linked to damaged vertebrae in his back and neck, and with the correct treatment he resumed tournament golf in June this year.