Harrington looks to go one better

Padraig Harrington is now among the five biggest earners in European Tour history but he has never won the Order of Merit – and unless he finishes first, second or third at the Volvo Masters on Sunday it is not going to happen this year.

The 35-year-old Dubliner, winner of more than €15.7m on the circuit since he turned professional 11 years ago, will tee off at Valderrama tomorrow alongside Paul Casey, the Ryder Cup team-mate he trails by €218,000.

And Harrington will be trying to get off to a better start than he did the last time he was in this position.

Four years ago the money list race focused on Harrington and Retief Goosen come the final week of the season. Harrington was only £17,000 behind then, but on the very first hole he incurred a two-stroke penalty for repairing a pitch mark which he then realised was not quite on the putting surface.

It was a self-inflicted blow from which he never recovered. He ended up 36th to Goosen’s 34th and so the Dubliner finished runner-up – just as he had to the same player the previous season.

Those two second places were followed by two thirds, firstly behind Ernie Els and Darren Clarke and then behind Els and Goosen.

But considering he fell back to 32nd last season, earning less than quarter of Colin Montgomerie’s total, just to get back into contention for an honour he rates so highly gives Harrington plenty to smile about win or lose this week.

“It would be a big deal to me to win the Order of Merit,” said Harrington, who after the high of winning the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews a fortnight ago missed the cut in Mallorca last Friday.

“Certainly I’ve been using it as motivation after the Ryder Cup to get focused and to get out on the course and push on.

“It’s certainly something you want on your CV. It’s directly behind the majors. At the end of the day you can win whatever tournaments you like, but you’re going to be judged on how many wins you have and then how many majors and after that on the Order of Merit and maybe your world ranking.”

One thing is for certain. The Vardon Trophy will have to have a new name inscribed on it.

Four players are left in the hunt with 72 holes to go, Casey and Harrington being followed by long-time leader David Howell and Robert Karlsson.

They each need a top-two finish just to have a chance of ousting Casey, who went into pole position when he captured the €1.5m first prize at the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth last month.

Given the fact that none of the quartet has anything better than a top-five finish from all the trips they have made to the Costa del Sol course, Casey’s advantage looks a very handy one.

Howell is €243,000 behind and the Swede has £274,090 to make up. Only Harrington of the chasing trio still has his fate in his own hands – if he wins on Sunday he will be crowned number one.

If he is second, Casey would have to finish third to stay top, but should Harrington be third Casey needs only a top-35 placing.

Howell’s situation is that a win would leave Casey needing to finish runner-up and second on his own would mean Casey had to be third. Anything worse than a four-way tie for second would rule Howell out.

As for Karlsson, if he won Casey would again have to finish runner-up, but if he was second on his own Casey would deny him if he was in the top 32.