Maiden victory will bring its own demands

Golf/US Tour News round-up: Padraig Harrington will be taking a shorter than usual winter hibernation from tournament play in the future.

As his upwardly-mobile graph continues apace, the 33-year-old Dubliner's win in the Honda Classic, his first success on the PGA Tour, means he will break new ground by earning an invitation to the Mercedes Championship, the winners-only tournament that takes place in Hawaii in the first week of January and which kick-starts the US season.

Normally at that time of year Harrington is in holiday mode and in the midst of a self-imposed, nine-week break from tournament golf.

However, his win in the Honda, where he beat Vijay Singh and Joe Ogilvie in a play-off, will force Harrington to tweak his schedule yet again to reflect his growing stature internationally.

Sunday's victory also means he has moved up to sixth in the latest official world rankings, and he has regained the position of top-ranked European player from Sergio Garcia.

And, with his breakthrough win coming so quickly after increasing his playing commitments on the US Tour, can that be a bad thing? Having played on the US Tour as a non-member for the past few years, Harrington committed himself to taking up his tour card there for the first time this season (without relinquishing his European card), and this success, the 13th individual win of his professional career, but the first official victory on the US Tour, is justification of that career decision.

The main reason for Harrington's decision to commit to playing the US Tour, especially in the early part of the season, was to be sharper for the majors. In previous years, he has felt that he hasn't played enough competitive golf in preparing for the majors.

"I'll give this schedule two years and see if I can handle it. Who knows what I'll do after that?" said Harrington, who in one fell swoop has risen from 119th to seventh on the US Tour money list with winnings of $1,087,826 from three tournaments.

Although he is now on a week's break, during which time he intends to take in Ireland's rugby match with Wales in Cardiff on Saturday, Harrington's top-heavy focus on the US for this part of the season will see him return for next week's Players' Championship at Sawgrass (where he has finished second the past two years), the following week's BellSouth Classic in Atlanta, and then the season's first major, the US Masters at Augusta.

After another week's rest, he will then play another three tournaments in a row in America, taking in the Houston Open, the New Orleans Classic and the Wachovia Championship.

His first appearance in Europe is not due to take place until the Nissan Irish Open at Carton House in May.

Harrington, who has joined Darren Clarke (winner of the Accenture matchplay in 2000 and the NEC Invitational in 2003) as an Irish winner on the PGA Tour, still feels there is a gap to be closed on the top five in the world rankings.

"Somewhere, deep down, it does give you confidence (to beat Singh) and hopefully, I will gain from it. There are a big five at the moment and it is a little bit of a step (to make) . . . I'm not quite breathing down on the top-five, but I'm in a position to catch them up," he said.

This win, and the manner of it, coming as it did with a finishing round 63 and then in a play-off with a golfer who until the previous week was ranked number one in the world, is confirmation that Harrington's graph is going in the right direction.

Certainly, he has exceeded any expectations he had when turning professional at the end of 1995.

"I've come a long way, I've got to say," said Harrington. "I've worked very hard at the game to get to this level. You know, when I turned pro, nobody would have predicted how far I would have gone. When I turned professional, I would have very happily settled with being an absolute journeyman pro on the European Tour. That's where I thought my professional golf life was going to be. So, I've come a long way.

"I've improved my golf game. I've totally torn my swing apart and rebuilt it."

While this first official win on American soil (he had won the World Cup with Paul McGinley at Kiawah Island in 1997 and the Target World Challenge in 2002) brings a two-year exemption and, of course, that invitation to play in the Mercedes which is confined to tournament winners throughout the season, Harrington hopes that playing the extra tournaments at this time of the year will help him to reap dividends in the majors.

"I'm hoping that playing the extra events will be the key to playing better in the majors," said Harrington, who has a best finish of fifth in the Masters, fifth in the US Open, fifth in the British Open and 17th in the US PGA.

Harrington takes a week out from tournament play this week, but Clarke, who has rested since the Accenture matchplay, and Graeme McDowell are in the field for the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando.

For McDowell, it is a crucial event in terms of getting into big tournaments in the weeks ahead. To get into the Players', he needs to be in the top-50 in the world after Bay Hill; to get into the Masters, he needs to be in the world's top-50 after Sawgrass. As things stand, he is ranked 52nd.

Paul McGinley heads the Irish challenge in the TCL Classic on the PGA European Tour when the event takes place at Hainan Island in China, starting on Thursday.

McGinley is joined in the field by Philip Walton and Stephen Browne.