Pádraig out to leapfrog Woods

THE opportunity to turn a disappointing season into a great year will be all the motivation Pádraig Harrington needs as he bids to leapfrog Tiger Woods on the way to season-ending FedEx Cup riches in America this week.

Harrington heads into the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, having vaulted to sixth place in the FedEx Cup standings with five top-10 finishes in his last five starts. All each of the top five above him in the standings, led by world number one Woods, need to do is win the $1.35 million (€900,000) tournament to be guaranteed the winner of the FedEx Cup and with it a $10m (€6.7m) bonus.

Harrington, meanwhile, must win and hope Woods finishes third or worse. But after such a poor start to 2009 as he sought to implement swing changes in the wake of his Open and US PGA victories last year, the Irishman said he was just looking for a victory to round off his end-of-year rebound.