Momentum with McDowell, Singh

WEATHER delays or not, it was a marvellous weekend for Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Fiji's Vijay Singh.

McDowell's outstanding Italian Open win sees him jump 95 places to 145th in the world rankings while he also played himself very much into the reckoning for a place in the European Ryder Cup team in September.

He is now 19th under the European qualifying system and 23rd on the world points list and would be in with a serious chance were he to pull off another tournament win over the coming weeks and months.

Meanwhile Singh, having upstaged Tiger Woods as the leading money winner in the US in 2003, is now pushing him hard for the coveted title of the game's number one player after a finish of eagle, birdie, birdie enabled him to snatch another triumph in the New Orleans Classic on Monday.

Singh might well displace Woods at the top were he to capture one of the season's remaining three majors and were Tiger, who has been out on his own ever since he captured the Western Open in 2001, to finish empty- handed for the season.

Singh is certainly in scintillating form, a remark that also applies to Phil Mickelson who came in a single shot behind the Fijian in New Orleans where he produced a sparkling birdie, birdie, birdie finish.

The Masters champion is shooting back up the world rankings and has improved further from 6th to 5th having begun the season in 15th.

Clearly aware of the pressure being exerted by Singh and Mickelson, Woods has changed his schedule and is in the field for this week's Wachovia Championship in North Carolina.

With the exception of Padraig Harrington (still eighth in the world rankings), who is competing in the Macao Open en route to defending the Asian Open in China and the Deutsche Bank TPC of Europe in successive weeks, Ireland's best will be in action this week in the British Masters at the Forest of Arden, an event promoted by International Sports Management, the company owned by Chubby Chandler and which numbers Darren Clarke (world ranking of 14th), McDowell and Paul McGinley (117th in the world) in its stable of golfers.

Clarke is favourite to lift the first prize of €250,000 having captured the English Open at this venue on a couple of occasions.

Paul McGinley returns to action after three weeks out for an operation on the knee injury he sustained playing Gaelic games as a youngster and which caused him to concentrate full-time on golf.

Clarke is currently third in the European order of merit with €453,251 followed by Harrington in fourth with €400,254, while his victory in Italy sees McDowell leap from 49th to 10th with €305,365. McGinley stands 25th with €200,118 and next best of the Irish are Peter Lawrie, 63rd with €86,777; Damien McGrane, 73rd, €70,228 and Gary Murphy, 95th, €47,441.

McDowell was quick to stress how much more his victory in Italy meant as opposed to his success in Sweden in his rookie year of 2002.

"I was still an amateur then," he said, "now I feel I'm a real pro and very positive about the future."

Much of that may be spent in the States, where he feels very much at home having spent four years at the University of Alabama. He turned pro in 2002 on the back of a series of sensational performances as an amateur in 2001, capped by victory in the Irish Close Championship, and a handsome contribution to Britain & Ireland's Walker Cup triumph over the US at Sea Island, Georgia.

A number of that side immediately joined the paid ranks, with the British press especially heralding the glowing prospects of players like Steven O'Hara, Nick Dougherty, Jamie Elson, Luke Donald and the Irish duo of Michael Hoey and McDowell.

It didn't take long, however, for people to realise that it was never going to be easy. True, McDowell won within a few weeks of turning pro but even he has acknowledged it was something of a false dawn.

Furthermore, Donald has done extremely well in the US and would certainly be a good bet for a place in this year's European Ryder Cup side were he not concentrating almost entirely on the US circuit.

On the debit side are Dougherty, a protégé of Nick Faldo, but standing a poor 111th in the order of merit, O'Hara 123rd with e36,444 and Elson 140th on e26,953.

Hoey, for his part, isn't even on the main tour although he indicated over the weekend that he may be overcoming the bad days since he turned pro on the back of his British Amateur triumph in 2001 and his appearance in the successful Walker Cup team.

Nowadays he is to be found on the Challenge Tour and doing reasonably well. He stands 15th in the order of merit with e15,510. A top 15 finish at the end of the year will see him through to the main circuit in 2005.

Incidentally, Justin Kehoe from Birr and Colm Moriarty of Athlone, both of whom moved to the pro game at the end of '03, are 72nd and 105th on the Challenge Tour with e3,568 and e2,120 respectively.

Anybody who believed the professional golf circuits were a gravy train should take note of those facts and figures, bearing in mind particularly that these young men were part of a vintage crop in their amateur days.

There are so many starry-eyed Irishmen spread throughout Europe and the States and even further afield who thought it was only a matter of time before they'd be rubbing shoulders with Tiger and Phil, Vijay and Padraig and are now being taught a salutary and expensive lesson.

Few departed the amateur game with higher expectations than Richard Coughlan, who at one stage was so promising that he held tour cards on both sides of the Atlantic.

Having hardly been heard of for several years, he resurfaced at the weekend in a US Nationwide Tour (the equivalent of the European Challenge Tour) when finishing a single shot out of a play-off in a tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. He shot rounds of 67, 69, 67 and 68 to prove what he is capable of.

He is up to 26th in the Nationwide order of merit and is in the field for this week's Chattanooga Challenge.

As for those who have played themselves into the multi-millionaire zone, one of their priorities is battling for places in the Ryder Cup team. The two qualifying groups currently stand:

European points list: Miguel-Angel Jimenez, Fredrik Jacobson, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Brian Davis, Ian Poulter, Padraig Harrington, Raphael Jacquelin, Paul Casey, Carlos Rodiles.

World points list: Harrington, Jimenez, Clarke, Jacobson, Westwood, Casey, Davis, Poulter, Thomas Bjorn, Sergio Garcia.