Pádraig could yet be a man in a million

THOUGH understandably surprised that his Irish Open victory moved him up just one spot from 12th to 11th in the World Rankings, Pádraig Harrington was content to put his feet up yesterday and ponder the events of the past week.

He was still on a high after that nerve-jangling victory at Adare Manor while gently moving forward to the prospect of chasing prize money in the region of €2 million in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Victory would automatically qualify him for the Irish Open-PGA €1million bonus while the £600,000 first prize at the BMW would amount to much the same figure.

The prospect of banking such an enormous amount of money would faze ordinary mortals, but hardly somebody like Harrington whose cheque for €416,660 at Adare brought his total earnings as a professional to more than €15million, something only Colin Montgomerie, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Darren Clarke had previously achieved.