Rich pickings takes Irish minds off lack of victories

In many ways, it is a measure of the increased level of expectation placed on Irish tour players in recent years that the 2006 season on the PGA European Tour can be perceived as merely a moderate one. With just the season-ending Volvo Masters left, only one Irish player - Padraig Harrington in the Dunhill Links championship - has managed to secure a tournament win.

Of the 10 Irish players who had full tour cards at the start of the season, three - David Higgins, Stephen Browne and Michael Hoey - have finished the season without them and must now face into the dreaded visit to next month's tour school.

Yet, even though Harrington was the sole player to win a regular tour event in 2006, the 10 players in possession of tour cards accumulated a total of €4,930,376 in prize money (so far) from their globetrotting during the season, and the Dubliner's win extended the sequence of there being at least one Irish winner on tour that dates back to 1995, when Philip Walton kick-started the run.

That figure of money won this season will be increased above the €5 million mark at this week's Volvo Masters, where there is no cut, as four Irish players - Harrington, Paul McGinley, Damien McGrane and Graeme McDowell - are playing.

Irish players have had 23 top-10 finishes on the European Tour up to the Volvo Masters and, apart from being the only player to have won on tour, Harrington has also been the most consistent of the group with seven top-10s in 19 counting events and just three missed cuts, the last of which came at last week's Mallorca Classic.

Apart from tournament wins and positions, players also determine the success or otherwise of a season on how they perform in the various categories in the European Tour statistics and, on this front too, Irish players will reflect on what might have been rather than on what was.

The most important of the statistical categories is the one that cannot be interfered with, that of stroke average. On this front, Sergio Garcia is set to have the lowest average, currently occupying top spot with 69.98 strokes. Harrington is the leading Irishman in the category in eighth position with an average of 70.46 strokes.

The adage of driving for show is confirmed by the statistics for driving accuracy, which are headed by Oliver Whitley. The Englishman has been the most accurate player off the tee on the European Tour in 2006, hitting 77.7 per cent of fairways, but that supremacy in driving accuracy has not been reflected on the bank balance as he earned only €50,524 in prize money to be ranked 187th in the Order of Merit.

Likewise, David Higgins, who failed to retain his card, is the most accurate Irish golfer off the tee with a fairway strike rate of 69.1 per cent.

In terms of driving distance, Christian Nilsson earned the accolade of longest hitter on tour with an average of 314.1 yards, but only managed to retain his card in 101st position on the money list. Browne emerged as the biggest hitter of the Irish players, in 23rd place with an average distance of 296.6, but that length didn't reap dividends in scoring and he failed to retain his tour card.

The closest any Irish player came to heading any of the statistical categories on tour was Darren Clarke's third placing in the putts per greens in regulation category. Clarke averaged 1.727 putts in a category where Thaworn Wirachant proved most effective with the blade, the Thai averaging 1.718 putts.

Wirachant also headed the average putts per round, having 28 putts.

The best placed Irishman in that category was Harrington, who averaged 28.4 putts (to be in sixth position).