In the wake of his triumph in the Benson and Hedges International on Sunday, Darren Clarke has set himself the target over the next two months of becoming the highest placed Irishman in the history of the world rankings. That will mean surpassing the 18th position achieved by fellow Northerner, Ronan Rafferty.

Clarke's win at The Oxfordshire has moved him from 32nd to 28th. And a high finish in the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth this week would get him into the top-25.

"Ranking is becoming more and more important, with World Championship events coming on stream next year," said Clarke yesterday. "It has already opened a lot of doors for me and obviously it's in my interest to get as low as possible."

Now that he has beaten Colin Montgomerie in a head-to-head, he also has his sights set on taking over from the Scot as leader the Order of Merit, a target he mounted a serious challenge for last season. With that in mind, he is prepared to play 12 weeks in a row, starting with The Oxfordshire.

Meanwhile, one of the most revealing comments he made about the weekend's events was to his manager, Andrew Chandler. "That was a proper win," said Clarke, as an assessment of his controlled play in a closing 36 holes of 134 for a three-shot margin over his nearest rival.

He attributes considerable credit for the change in his mental attitude to the expertise of Dr Bob Rotella, a leading American sports psychologist. "I bought his latest book when I was over for the Masters last month and I then had a one-hour meeting with him at Augusta," said Clarke.

"That was before the final round of the Masters and it certainly made a difference. And I brought the book (Golf is not a game of Perfects) with me to The Oxfordshire where I read about 50 pages on Friday and another 30 pages before I began the final round on Sunday.

"Before this, I was under the impression that the only way I could improve as a golfer was to punch in the hours on the practice ground. But I now realise that it was the mental side of the game that was holding me back. That's what I need to work on."

The importance of his gradual rise in the world rankings is reflected in US invitations. For instance, he will be playing in the Buick Classic, the US Open and the Western Open in successive weeks next month. And he will be back in the US in August for the USPGA Championship and the Sprint International, if he wishes.

"There is also the option of playing in the Texas Open and the Buick Challenge in late September/early October," said Chandler. "This is all going to be a great help to Darren in his bid to get a player's card there for next season.

"With our (British) Open also counting for the US money list, I reckon he could settle for about $60,000 from the three events next month. All going well, our plan for next year is that Darren will play 15 or 16 tournaments in the States and 13 or 14 in Europe."

In the meantime, he was in action in the made-for-television inaugural EMC Golf Skills Challenge at Wentworth yesterday when Montgomerie was among his seven European colleagues. And he will be meeting up with the Scot again later in the week for practice rounds prior to the PGA Championship.

Montgomerie made a point of saying at the weekend that having been given the choice of Clarke or Thomas Bjorn as a partner in the Ryder Cup last September, he chose the Irishman. "Since Darren moved to Sunningdale we see a lot of each other," he added.

"He's only 15 minutes from where I live and our wives get on well. We also talk a lot about golf and I have given him some tips." Then, with a smile: "It seems I may have been helping him too much."

There will be 11 Irish challengers in the £1.2 million Volvo PGA which starts on the West Course on Friday and ends on Monday, a British bank holiday. They are: Rafferty, Clarke, Paul McGinley, Padraig Harrington, Des Smyth, Eamonn Darcy, Philip Walton, Raymond Burns and Irish Region representatives Damien McGrane, Stephen Hamill and Paul Russell.

After finishing 24th at The Oxfordshire, following a thirdplace finish in Majorca, McGinley is clearly in good form at the moment. But he intends to wait until after the Deutsche Bank Open in Hamburg at the end of this month before deciding whether to attempt to qualify for the US Open, for which he is not exempt.

Harrington, who is exempt, is hoping to learn later this week whether he is to get an invitation into the Kemper Open on June 4th to 7th.