Shanghai result is key for McDowell

For Graeme McDowell, this may or may not be the last week this year that he plays competitively. The 26-year-old Ulster player - one of three Irishmen in the elite field - heads to the €4.25-million HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, China, precariously placed just outside the world's top 50 in the official rankings and knowing he has unfinished business if he is to guarantee himself a place in the field for next April's US Masters at Augusta National.

"I know I need a good week in China," said McDowell who, fortuitously, gained his berth in the HSBC field at a time when he was in the world's top 50.

The thin line at this upper level is demonstrated by McDowell's situation.

After the Dunhill Links last month, he was 53rd in the world. However, a sixth-placed finish at the following week's American Express - the cut-off point for the HSBC - resulted in McDowell jumping to 48th and so securing a place in the field for China.

He has since slipped to 51st, but needs to move back into the elite top-50 grouping by year's end to secure his Masters ticket.

If McDowell has a good week in China, he may be able to put away the clubs for the winter. If he doesn't, his options include adding one or possibly two tournaments on to his schedule in a late effort to secure that invite to Augusta.

"I'm going to China with a lot of confidence. I'm hitting the ball better, and my game's started to come around again," said McDowell, who will have his - and Padraig Harrington's - therapist, Dale Richardson, available in Shanghai in case there is any recurrence of the spinal injury that has hampered him in recent months.

Darren Clarke, who was also qualified to play in the tournament, has decided to remain home to be with his wife, Heather, who is battling cancer.

The HSBC - the first ranking event towards the 2006 PGA European Tour money list - is an elite tournament confined to tournament winners in Europe and Asia and the world's top 50 (after the AmEx), as well as a small number of Chinese professionals. And it gives those European players in the field a chance to steal some ground in terms of accumulating points for the Ryder Cup.

Paul McGinley, who has virtually booked his place on Ian Woosnam's team, even at this early stage of the qualifying campaign, will be making his first appearance since winning the Volvo Masters, while Harrington was one of those who has made the trip to China after completing his interest in the US Tour's Tour Championship at East Lake.

Harrington's tied-seventh finish in the Tour Championship earned him $209,625, which boosted his year's earnings on the US Tour (where he won twice, in the Honda Classic and the Barclays Classic) to $2,615,731.

It also left him 14th on the US money list in his first full year as a card holder.

McGinley and Harrington, who have remained at 18th and 14th respectively in the world rankings, will next week team up for the World Cup at Vilamoura in the Algarve, after which McGinley will undergo knee surgery (leading to a 10-week break from the sport) and Harrington will take a short break before heading over to the States to play in the Target World Challenge, a tournament promoted by Tiger Woods and one Harrington has previously won.

Woods, meanwhile, has again decided to bypass the World Cup (the US team comprises Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink) and instead will defend his title at the Dunlop Phoenix Open in Japan, where Michelle Wie will also be competing. Incidentally, Peter Lawrie has also received an invitation to that tournament through Srixon, one of his sponsors.

In the meantime, Woods has made the journey to China to play in the HSBC where there is €704,516 on offer to the winner. Not that Woods really needs the money - it is titles he is after. His runner-up finish to Bryant in the Tour Championship left him topping the US money list with $10,628,024, over $2.5 million ahead of Vijay Singh.

Not surprisingly, Woods left Atlanta for China in buoyant mood after a season that saw him win two majors - the US Masters and the British Open - and open up a huge gap on Singh in the battle to be world's number one.

"It was a great season," said Woods.

"After all the changes we've made the past couple of years, and to have this type of contention again in major championships again, that's ultimately where I want to be. I want to be there in the back nine of every major with a chance to win it. This year, I was there in all four, so that's exciting."

Three Irishmen - Des Smyth, who has recovered well from recent surgery to unblock a valve to his heart, Denis O'Sullivan and Eddie Poland - are playing in the season-ending Seniors Tour Championship in Bahrain this week, where Sam Torrance and Carl Mason are involved in a head-to-head battle to top the money list.

For others, this week is one of the most important of the year. Eamonn Brady, John Kelly, Stephen Browne, Philip Walton and Colm Moriarty are the five Irishmen competing in the European Tour final qualifying school at San Roque, which starts on Thursday and finishes next Tuesday.

There are 156 players competing for 30 tour cards, among them former Ryder Cup players Walton, Jarmo Sandelin and Peter Baker.