Major reason to miss event

Golf: Nobody could ever accuse Padraig Harrington of not being methodical. Whether it is with his pre-shot routine, or in the habit of signing his card twice, or in the amount of time he spends on the range where he is invariably the last to leave, few players put as much thought into the whole process of creating the package best geared to success as he does.

It's the same with his schedule. The Dubliner's decision to miss out on the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth this week, has not been taken lightly. His absence means that the tournament, one of the flagship events on the European Tour, will be missing its star attraction, and Colin Montgomerie - "it seems very strange to me, he shot a 61 in the World Matchplay there and it is the same course," was the acerbic comment of the Scot - and Nick Faldo are among those to criticise Harrington's decision.

"I'm very surprised he is not going there. It's our premier event and the way he is playing now he could tackle any course. He shouldn't even be thinking of missing the cut, and I'm surprised he has thrown that into the equation. I'm surprised Ken (Schofield) hasn't had a word with him," said Faldo. Faldo's criticism is a little rich, given that he has also missed the championship when he has deemed that it didn't fit in with his own plans. Although a four-time winner of the event, Faldo has missed the event twice in the past five years - in 1998 and 2000 - but, in Harrington's defence, the criticism hasn't been all one-sided. Darren Clarke, for one, fully understands Harrington's decision.

"If Padraig doesn't like the golf course, there's no point in him going to play. That's about it. He's gone there before and not done well at the (Volvo) PGA and it wouldn't do his confidence any good if he goes. I can understand his point," said Clarke.

And the reality is that playing there simply doesn't fit in with Harrington's plans . . . or with his quest to win a major. Harrington made his decision to bypass Wentworth known as early as last November and he has stuck by his guns, even informing the PGA European Tour executive director Ken Schofield earlier in the season that he would not be changing his mind or his itinerary.

Faldo's barb that Schofield should have persuaded Harrington to change his mind shows a lack of understanding of the situation as the player and the tour's chief executive actually discussed the situation two months ago. Indeed, when the tour were looking for a big name player to back the decision to go ahead with the Qatar Masters in the build-up to the war in Iraq, Harrington - unlike Montgomerie, who even withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic - was the one who most publicly supported Schofield. In fairness, while his absence obviously hurts the €3.5 million event, Harrington has not come under any undue pressure from the tour to be there.

In explaining his decision, Harrington said: "I've struggled every year at Wentworth. Okay, I'm playing well now, and feel like I could play any golf course and that I could go there and overcome many of the problems I've encountered in the past. But, by going, I could mess up preparations for the US Open, and I could ruin the rest of the year.

"I need a break now. I've forced myself into this decision. I committed myself to it at start of the year, and I am going to stick to it. In my current form, I almost wish I could go and give it a go but the reality is I am committed to a schedule that if I change it could have a detrimental effect on the rest of my season."

Harrington's win in the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open TPC of Europe in Hamburg has lifted him to number one in the European Order of Merit - however, he is likely to be overtaken again by Ernie Els who is competing in Wentworth this week - and moved him to eighth in the latest world rankings. The next best-placed European player is Sergio Garcia in 12th place.

His win on Sunday - when he overcame Thomas Bjorn at the first hole of sudden-death - provided further confirmation that his game is going in the right direction, and it also showed how short a time a month is in golf. After missing the cut at the US Masters, Harrington took a three-week break from competition and underwent some minor technical adjustments to his swing with coach Bob Torrance.

Now, Harrington - whose next appearance will be in next week's Memorial Tournament on the US Tour, after which he will play in the Kemper Open and then the US Open - believes he is firmly heading in the right direction as regards that quest for a major is concerned. "I've learned a lot, especially in the last six months," he explained. "I've learned a lot about my own swing and where I am going. I am still improving, and that's the main thing.

"But it is nice to get results as you are improving. It is very difficult when you go and change things . . . (because) sometimes you step backwards before you go forward. However, when you do get a bigger success like this TPC, then it is a nice pat on the back to say that you are going in the right direction. This win represents another step on the ladder, it is a higher rung . . . but there is still quite a big gap between this and a major.

"No matter how good you are, it is seldom that you win a tournament. Last year, the most anyone won was four times so, if you take it that I play 30 events worldwide in a year, you are now down to winning one in every seven events. So, when you do win, you've got to sit back and take all the congratulations that are going and massage the ego."

A number of other Irish challengers are heading there in good form. Graeme McDowell secured his first top-10 finish of the season in Hamburg: "I haven't played Wentworth before, but I feel it is a course that I know well because of the amount of time I watched tournaments there on television," he remarked - and he is now determined to move up the world rankings in a bid to get into the top 50 which will get him into the major championships. McDowell's performance in Germany enabled him to move back into the world's top 200, in 158th position.

The full Irish contingent for the PGA this week is Clarke, McDowell, Paul McGinley, Peter Lawrie, Ronan Rafferty, Brendan McGovern, John Dwyer and Philip Walton.

EUROPEAN ORDER OF MERIT - Irish positions: 1, Padraig Harrington €979,754; 13, D Clarke €317,866; 21, P Lawrie €246,856; 37, P McGinley €169,341; 55, G McDowell €123,460; 109, G Murphy €55,650; 175, D McGrane €21,331; 206, P Walton €11,143; 237, R Rafferty €6,075.