Harrington will be putt to the test by Riley

RYDER Cup rivalry will be renewed at Wentworth on Thursday when Ireland’s Padraig Harrington faces Chris Riley in the first round of the HSBC World Match Play Championship which offers a world record first prize of £1 million.

Though criticised for opting out of the Saturday afternoon foursomes at Oakland Hills due to “mental exhaustion”, Riley fared better than most of his Ryder Cup colleagues.

He partnered Tiger Woods to a 4 and 3 fourball win over Darren Clarke and Ian Poulter and also halved the first morning fourball with Stewart Cink against Paul McGinley and Luke Donald before losing his singles to Poulter by 3 and 2.

Noted for his expertise as a chipper and putter, Riley is certain to provide Harrington with a serious test over the West Course at Wentworth, a venue with which the Irishman has had a love-hate relationship.

Harrington has missed out on the European Tour’s flagship event, the Volvo PGA Championship at the course, for the past two years, pleading his dislike for the Wentworth greens early in the year though he is much more at home there in the autumn.

Indeed, he reached the final here in 2001. On that occasion, however, he threw away a commanding lead against Ian Woosnam after playing the opening 18 holes in a record-equalling 61 shots. But that was good only for a two-hole lead as Woosnam produced a magnificent performance. Between them they posted 21 birdies and were an incredible 56 (16 under par) to record the best ever figures for the championship.

Not surprisingly, they were unable to maintain such a standard in the afternoon and it was the Welshman who prevailed, coming from three down to win on the 17th.

It was Harrington’s seventh runner-up finish of the season and one that hurt more than most. Nevertheless, he’s not a man to stay down for long and less than a month later he was crowned Volvo Masters champion at Montecastillo in Spain.

Harrington is seeded 5th this week and is expected to take care of Riley, who is ranked 12th. The first round gets under way with the clash of Ernie Els, now world number two, against Scott Drummond, this year’s winner of the Volvo PGA at Wentworth, while the new world number one Vijay Singh faces Europe’s Ryder Cup- winning captain Bernhard Langer, who has yet to capture the trophy.

Oddly enough, Els is seeded number one ahead of Singh, 2, although the world rankings place them the other way round.

It could have something to do with the South African’s status as holder and five times champion against a lone success for the Fijian in 1997 - when he defeated Els in the decider. Few would bet against the same line-up in Sunday’s decider.

All the matches take place over 36 holes and with the field extended from 12 to 16 players, there will be no byes into the second round for the seeded four, as in previous years.

With the very generous winner’s cheque and the event counting for European Tour and world rankings points, it’s an occasion to stir the competitive juices of any player.