Harrington's order of merit hopes goosed at Valderrama

PÁDRAIG Harrington's European Tour order of merit aspirations were finally dashed at Valderrama yesterday as Retief Goosen protected his lead going into the Volvo Masters without the slightest difficulty.

The South African was a shot behind Harrington starting the last day. The gap opened to three when Goosen double bogeyed the short 3rd but there was never any contest where the order of merit race was concerned. Harrington's game remained as mediocre as it had been all week and in the end he was outscored 71 to 73 by Goosen. Harrington would have needed to shoot a round of 66 to leapfrog Goosen and there was never a possibility of that over a course that is difficult enough in the first place without being swept over the weekend by a very strong wind.

Both men finished well down the leaderboard, Goosen tied for 34th on fourteen over 296 and Harrington a shot worse for a share of 36th.

He won 22,584 and ended the campaign with 2,334,655, some 25,472 behind his rival.

"I'm delighted Retief shot a good score to-day and won it for himself," said Harrington. "He played a lot of good golf on both sides of the Atlantic through the year so he deserves it. It's been a disappointing week for me but I had a reasonable year.I've gained plenty of experience and that will stand to me. I was not playing for the Volvo Masters out there, I was trying to win the order of merit and that was stupid. You get ahead of yourself and away from what you're normally doing.

"The last few weeks were a different sort of tournament. You kind of have to go through these things once or twice before you learn. I would do a lot of things differently if I had it over again but I still have no regrets about the past three weeks because I didn't know any better.

"It's not about playing tournaments, not at all. It's my focus I'd change. It was a totally different situation for three weeks. There's so much focus, so much attention on every shot, everything you're doing. It's not like being in an actual tournament.

It's a completely different sort of distraction".

Goosen numbered the US Open among his three victories when he captured last year's order of merit. His only victory this season came in the Johnnie Walker Classic last January. Once again yesterday, he lived up to his image as a cool but rather colourless individual but he was honest enough to own up to the mistake of criticising Harrington as "the slowest player in Europe" on the eve of the Madrid Open. Initially, he dismissed a reference to the occurrence with a shrug of the shoulders and a comment that "me and Padraig have sorted it all out now. There are no hard feelings, we know where we stand". But he then elaborated: "It's the end of the story now. It's been said and done and written about in ways that I don't like but it's something I shouldn't have said and I have apologised to him."

As for this latest achievement, he commented: "any time you win an order of merit anywhere in the world, you're obviously playing well. I consider myself quite lucky. Padraig was playing really well and I thought he would definitely pull it off in Madrid and Italy. I think I got lucky in Italy because the rain reduced it to a three round tournament and then this week we both struggled".

Goosen gently dismissed suggestions that because he has won the order of merit in two successive years that he might now chase Colin Montgomerie's astonishing seven-in-a-row.

"I don't think I'll be playing golf that long and anyway my wife, Tracy, is expecting in March and I'll probably be cutting back on my schedule in both Europe and America," he smiled. "But a third in a row will be a goal for next year. The standard of golf in Europe is so good now and you have so many first time winners both here and the States that it's really tough to do it."

Darren Clarke was comfortably best of the Irish contingent at Valderrama and were it not for a couple of double bogeys at 17 and 18 on Saturday, would have been right in the thick of the battle yesterday. A closing 71 for four over par left him in a tie for 9th worth 66,498 and he finished the year in 22nd position on the order of merit, his worst ranking since 1994.

"71 out there to-day was good because it was hard to hit the greens never mind to keep the ball on them," he commented.

"A top ten finish could earn me a few world ranking points but the way I played also gives me a lot of confidence for my last two events of the year, the Dunlop Phoenix and the Sun City Classic."

Graeme McDowell finished with an 80 for 302 and Paul McGinley with a 74 for 304.