Murphy’s Law at Valderrama

GARY MURPHY believed he knew the Valderrama course well enough until he discovered the final hole played in the opposite direction he thought.

Murphy made the revelation as he finalised preparations for today’s starting Volvo Masters on the former Ryder Cup host venue in Spain.

He and fellow Irish golfer Peter Lawrie are making their debut in the season-ending event and join compatriots Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley chasing a Tour record-equalling 583,330 first prize cheque. The supposedly elite 60-player field, however, has been reduced by two with the absence of 2003 European Number One elect Ernie Els, along with compatriot and former back-to-back Number One Retief Goosen.

Murphy got his first close-up look at the course on Monday after jetting into nearby Malaga on Sunday night following his nightmare Madrid Open final round that fortunately resulted in the 33-year-old holding onto his top 60 money list placing.

“It was my own fault I gave myself all that worry in Madrid because I just had a bad tournament,” Murphy said. “Going to the Dutch Open a fortnight earlier I thought I was safely in the Volvo Masters but one of the lads mentioned to me I might need another 20,000 and that was the case.

“But now I’m here, it’s a great course and a lot fairer than I thought it would be. The 17th is probably the strongest though every hole is and I still don’t know how (Ignacio) Garrido holed the shot from the back of the bunker in the ‘97 Ryder Cup.

“The course is a good test but I have to admit when I got to the 18th tee on Monday I thought it was a dog-leg that played left to right. It plays the complete opposite. So it was good to find that out before it starts.”

Murphy visited Valderrama in 1997 when he was on the Costa del Sol striving for a third unsuccessful time in a row to win his Tour card. “I bought my dad a Valderrama sweater but I didn’t play the course,” he said.

“Coming here six years later is a bit like playing in a British Open. You work so hard to get into the Open so if you don’t play well it ends up being a bad week.”

“I don’t want to be playing awful and putting the flags out every morning so this week is a big week not only money wise but world ranking points wise, as I won’t be getting any ranking points sitting around the winter doing nothing.”

The event is also the first no cut tournament Murphy has contested in his fourth year full-time on the Tour, although he displayed his keen Kilkenny wit by confirming: “I played the Ballyliffin Pro-Am where there was a cut in the bar.”

Clarke is assured of runner-up spot on the Order of Merit for a third time in six years and despite winning one event, the NEC Invitational, to Els’ four, the Dungannon golfer is satisfied with his season’s work.

“I had the opportunity to close the gap on Ernie at the Dunhill but I didn’t putt well on the final day at St Andrews and with the way I played in Atlanta the following week, that was more or less it,” he said. “But to play as well as I have without winning as many tournaments, I would say it’s been a pretty good year. It certainly is a goal to win the Order of Merit and whilst finishing second three times is good, I would love to win it.”

Clarke is assured to be keeping one eye on this week’s Chrysler Championship in Florida to establish if he finishes top 30 on the US Tour money list to book a place in next week’s Tour Championship in Houston. That would see him pulling out of next week’s Seve Trophy at El Saler.

“I am 26th on the money list, so I need five people to pass me and I’d prefer to play in the Tour Championship because it’s a dream event that I’ve always wanted to play.”

“My three dream events are the Tour Championship, the Mercedes Championship (open to US Tour individual winners from the previous year) and the Grand Slam of Golf (for the year’s Major winners).

“I won’t know about the Tour Championship till 9.30pm on Sunday night, so I don’t know if I’m going to stay here in Spain, go home or what I’m going to do yet.”

Harrington is also hoping to end his eighth European season in winning mode. Aside from a third victory in 2003, Harrington is also determined to steal a stash of world ranking points in his final World Ranking scoring tournament of his year.

“I would like to win some points to get me through the winter break,” he said. “It could be three months before I could start playing for World Ranking points again, so I want to try to get a few points to fatten me up for the winter, for my hibernation.”

Volvo Masters debutant Lawrie is four rounds away from confirmation as the Rookie of the Year. The Dubliner, 29, is 47th on the Order of Merit, 59 places clear of nearest rival, the absent Swiss golfer Julien Clement. He will also become the first Irish golfer to win the Sir Henry Cotton award.