Harrington ready to take stock

Golf Tour News:Few players, if any, will welcome the winter break more than Pádraig Harrington who finished his season's exertions in California, where tournament host Tiger Woods won his fourth World Challenge. Now, the 36-year-old Dubliner can put the clubs away, at least competitively, for just over a month as he doesn't intend to reappear on the tournament schedule again until the Abu Dhabi championship from January 17th-20th.

For British Open champion Harrington, who collected another accolade yesterday for his ever more cluttered mantelpiece when he won the British-based Association of Golf Writers' player of the year award, the main challenge for 2008 as he contemplates following on from his maiden major win is how to balance his itinerary.

"In a perfect world, " he observed, "I would certainly reduce the number of events that I'm playing. However, I'd done my 2008 schedule out and, bearing in mind that it is a Ryder Cup year, had reduced it compared to this year only to add in three more because of the changes that the US Tour have made around the time of the FedEx Cup.

"I was only going to play two of the three FedEx Cup tournaments but now they've a free week before the Ryder Cup I will probably play all three . . . and I was going to take a week off after the Ryder Cup, but now they've made that the Tour Championship, so it's likely that I'll be playing."

The other addition Harrington has made is to definitely add the Buick Invitational on to his list of tournaments, because three of the four rounds will be played on the same Torrey Pines course that later in the season will play host to the US Open.

"If I play two or three rounds there, I guarantee you there'll be two or three shots that will benefit me come the US Open," said Harrington, who remains eighth in the latest official world rankings.

In fact, Harrington will be heading straight from Abu Dhabi to California - a difference of 12 time zones - in order to play in the Buick. "It is upsetting my schedule and it means I'm doing something against what I'd generally do, but I can see the positives in going to Torrey Pines and that's why I'm doing it. My schedule is all geared up to the majors."

One big decision Harrington has taken with a view to his schedule next year is he will miss the WGC CA Open at Doral, simply because it does not tie in with his plans ahead of the US Masters at Augusta in April. He has decided to play in New Orleans as part of his build-up to the Masters, also taking in the Houston Open.

"My ideal preparation for a major is to play two tournaments and then the major. It takes more than one week to get my focus right and experience has told me that two tournaments is ideal. It is what works for me. I've found if I take time off (before a major) that I end up doing too much practice and work too hard."

In fact, Harrington plans to have seven tournaments under his belt by the time he drives up Magnolia Lane for the Masters. Abu Dhabi will be his only tournament on the European Tour, followed by a campaign in the States that takes in the Buick Invitational, a week off, then the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am, the Los Angeles Open and the Accenture Matchplay. After a near month-long break, he will return to the US Tour for the New Orleans Open, the Houston Open and then the Masters.

While Harrington can pack away his clubs with great anticipation for the new year, Darren Clarke's third place finish in the South African Open - his first top-three on tour in over 18 months since finishing third in the 2006 Irish Open at Carton House - has enabled him to arrest his slide in the world rankings. Clarke, who had fallen to 247th, has moved up to 225th in the latest listings.

As things stand, Harrington, at eighth, is the only Irish player in the top 100. Graeme McDowell is 106th and plans to return to tournament action in Abu Dhabi in a four-week stint that takes in the Qatar Masters, the Dubai Desert Classic and the Indian Masters.

Paul McGinley (207th), Rory McIlroy (232nd), Peter Lawrie (275th), Damien McGrane (320th) and Gary Murphy (365th) are the only other Irish players in the top-400.