Paddy’s top 50 residency in danger

ANOTHER dismal week, another slump in the world rankings.

After missing the cut by five shots in the Volvo China Open last week, Pádraig Harrington is no longer among the top 40 golfers on the globe.

He has fallen all the way back to 41st having been a career best third after winning the US PGA in 2008. Since then the graph has been in freefall: end 2008 — 4th: end 2009 — 6th; end 2010 — 25th; end April 2011 — 41st.

With no sign of the trend being arrested, the danger is Harrington will soon drop out of the leading 50 who qualify for the lucrative and extremely important World Championship events although, as a three times major champion, he will have no concerns for some time to come about his participation in the Masters, the US and British Opens and the US PGA Championships.

Realistically, Harrington can have no complaints after an absolutely shocking start to the 2011 campaign. Everything looked to be in working order when he opened with a 65 in Abu Dhabi, only to be disqualified for a technical infringement, and it has been steadily downward ever since.

True, he finished 10th in the WGC Cadillac Championship and eighth in the Shell Houston Open, but the promise of that performance was considerably diluted when he failed to survive the cut a week later at Augusta.

His record to date in the States is 63rd; 55th; beaten first round of Accenture World Match Play; 10th; missed cut; 8th and missed cut. On the European Tour, the sequence has been DQ (disqualified), 58th and missed cut.

The picture is significantly brighter for Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy, who remain fifth and seventh in the rankings although the former was a big disappointment at the Heritage tournament in Hilton Head where he opened with promising rounds of 68 and 69 before falling away at the weekend with two 74s for a lowly 65th place finish.

McIlroy took time out to recharge the batteries and demonstrated he has a life outside of golf by supporting his many friends in the Ulster rugby team in their Magners League win over Connacht at Ravenhill.

McDowell tees it up again this week in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, an event with a handsome prize fund of $6.4m. Also in the field is England’s Luke Donald, who was so unfortunate on Sunday to lose a play-off to American Brandt Snedeker in the Heritage tournament. Victory would have installed the Englishman as the game’s number one golfer but, true to form, he made light of the situation, claiming “number one is not the final goal. My career is a constant travel. To be number one would be great but not everything. It would be a tick in the box and great to talk to the grandkids about in 30 years time but I still have plenty of time to do that. It’s hard to put it out of mind and it was going to be some big rewards if I won the Heritage. I will just try to take the positives from the week and move on.”

It will be interesting to see if Donald can do just that in New Orleans this week.

In the meantime, the golfing world is looking a little askance at a world ranking system that propelled Lee Westwood back to number one on the back of his victory in the low key Indonesian Masters.

He won the event with a 19 under par total, three ahead of Thongchai Jaidee, just about the only other recognisable name in a distinctly low quality field.

This compares unfavourably with Donald’s runner-up spot in the States where several big names participated.

Americans are particularly frustrated by the situation and on this occasion appear to have a fairly rock solid case. The problem from their perspective, however, is they still wouldn’t have anyone in the top three no matter what happened over the weekend.

Those spots are currently the preserve of Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Donald. Phil Mickelson leads the Americans in fourth spot with Tiger Woods sixth, Steve Stricker, ninth, and Matt Kuchar, 10th, also in the top 10.

Westwood leads the way in this week’s Ballantines Championship in Seoul, the big attraction on the European Tour schedule. He is joined in the field by the big hitting American Dustin Johnson, while Peter Lawrie will be hoping to go one better than his share of second in China at the weekend.

The other Irish in action in Korea are Gareth Maybin, Damien McGrane, Shane Lowry, Paul McGinley and Michael Hoey.

Rory McIlroy returns to action next when he defends the Quail Hollow title that he won in sensational fashion 12 months ago.