The countdown starts on Thursday at the Gut Larchenhof course in Cologne. There, in the German Masters, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie will enter the closing phase in a fascinating three-way battle for this year's European Order of Merit.

With little more than £1,200 separating the trio, it seems likely that the fight will go to the last event of the season, the Volvo Masters at Montecastillo, ending on November 1st. And though he is lying second at this stage, Clarke believes he is favourite to emerge victorious, so emulating Ronan Rafferty's achievement of 1989.

Though he takes no delight in the problems of a close friend, Clarke knows that Westwood is struggling badly with a recurring back problem. And he is hoping that the strain of nine successive events will eventually take their toll on Montgomerie.

"I find it quite amusing that Colin expressed no interest in winning the Order of Merit for the sixth successive year," said Clarke yesterday. "I would hate to think what he'd be doing if he was taking this one seriously."

While Clarke was taking a weekend's break with his wife and infant son in the luxury of Scibo Castle, Scotland, Montgomerie was struggling to 11th place in the Lancome Tournament. Further good news for the Tyroneman was that Westwood collected only £1,200 for a share of last place.

In Scibo, Clarke and his wife, Heather, embarked on the potentially dangerous exercise of playing mixed foursomes together. Their opponents were Clarke's manager, Andrew Chandler and his wife, Justine, and the Irish pair won the nine-hole match with a creditable score of 49, considering Heather is essentially a beginner at the game.

After leaving Paris on Sunday, Montgomerie headed for Norway where he played an exhibition match yesterday and has a further engagement there today. That, and the fact that he has already played 18 European tournaments this season - the same as Clarke and one fewer than Westwood - can only strengthen the Irishman's prospects.

"Obviously Colin's long enough around to know how to handle his own schedule, but I like to think that I'll be fresher, going into the Volvo Masters, he said." Now that Clarke is in the field for the World Matchplay at Wentworth, their closing schedules are identical.

Though Clarke's victory in the 1996 German Masters was on the Motzener See course rather than this week's venue, the status of former champion is clearly no harm for morale. "I'll take the money whatever way I can, but if I was to win this week, I reckon it would just about wrap up the Order of Merit," he concluded.

There will be four other Irish challengers in the field - Paul McGinley, Padraig Harrington, Philip Walton and Raymond Burns. As it happened, Burns, who is desperately in need of cash to retain his card for next season, was accepted into the event only yesterday.

The remaining tournaments are also important for Harrington and McGinley who will be anxious to end the season in the top-15 of the Order of Merit so as to gain exemptions into next year's US Open. Indeed Walton, currently 62nd, could also climb into the upper regions of the table with a few high finishes.

Meanwhile, those observers of Paul Leonard's career would not have been surprised by his splendid victory in the Efteling European Seniors Trophy in Holland on Sunday. A fragile putting stroke was the only thing that stood between him and a significantly greater impact in regular tournaments.

Probably his finest moment came at Carnoustie in 1975 when he finished 12th in the British Open behind Tom Watson. Leonard, who was attached to Royal Co Down at that stage, carded rounds of 70, 69, 73 and 74 for an aggregate of 286, seven strokes outside Watson. In the process, he finished level with the 1963 champion Bob Charles for a reward of £1,750 and was a stroke ahead of the 1973 winner Tom Weiskopf and two clear of Arnold Palmer. That was a time when Leonard use a split-handed grip to overcome a recurring twitch over short putts.

On home terrain, he talents were reflected in some fine performances in the Ulster Professional Championship after it became a strokeplay event in 1976. Indeed he gained the distinction of winning it on four successive occasions from 1977 to 1981, by which stage he was attached to Killymoon. Having equalled the record held by Fred Daly and Hugh Jackson, he went on to gain a fifth victory at Portstewart in 1984.

Across the Atlantic, there was further proof on Sunday that it is never too late to make a breakthrough on the international stage. It is a feeling which Chris Perry experienced in the BC Open where he gained his first victory on the USPGA Tour, seven days before his 37th birthday.

In his 377th US tournament appearance, Perry hit the jackpot. His winner's cheque for $270,000 was more than he had made in any of his first 13 seasons as a professional, though there were indications of brighter fortunes when he earned $460,984 last year.

Now 39th in the US money list with earnings of $671,806, Perry's next target will be go get among the top-30 qualifiers for the lucrative, end-of-season Tour Championship starting on October 29th. Either way, he has boosted his career earnings to $2,728,767.