Irish get into the Gulf Swing

Tour News:No fewer than eight Irish players, a sure sign that the winter cobwebs have been divested, will compete in this week's Abu Dhabi Championship, the first of a three-tournament Gulf Swing on the PGA European Tour.

For seven of them, the exception being Darren Clarke, the tournament marks a first competitive outing of the year.

Clarke, whose fourth-place finish in the Joburg Open moved him up 25 places to 204th in the world rankings, heads to the capital of the United Arabs Emirates with the advantage of a tournament - and a second successive top-five finish - under this belt.

But the championship in Abu Dhabi, where the winner will pocket €225,000, marks a first competitive outing on the European Tour in almost two months for British Open champion Padraig Harrington.

Harrington's last outing on the European circuit came in the season-opening HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai last November. The Dubliner is playing Abu Dhabi (where he finished fifth, three strokes behind winner Paul Casey a year ago) as a once-off outing on tour, to be followed by a two-week break before he begins his season in earnest at the Pebble Beach pro-am.

Originally, he had intended to play in next week's Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, where Tiger Woods will make his seasonal debut.

But the prospect of traversing so many time zones for one tournament, on top of the fact that he was hit by a virus over the Christmas period, has led Harrington to decide not to play in next week's venue for this year's US Open.

However, the first half of Harrington's year will be dominated by appearances Stateside, as he won't be playing in Europe until he defends his Irish Open at Adare Manor in May.

Harrington and Clarke are joined in Abu Dhabi by Graeme McDowell, who is playing a stint of four tournaments, taking in the Gulf Swing followed by the Indian Masters in Delhi, Rory McIlroy, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy and Paul McGinley.

McGinley, who embarked on an even more intensive fitness programme over the winter break while resisting the temptation to make swing adjustments, only added Abu Dhabi to his schedule after the Royal Trophy in Thailand was postponed due to a bereavement in the Thai royal family.

Yet, it marks the start of an intensive early-season campaign that will see him play the three tournaments in the Gulf - Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai - before finishing off the stint in India as he attempts to make a fourth successive Ryder Cup team.

Although there is a long way to go in the Ryder Cup qualifying race to Valhalla in Kentucky next September, the Irish contingent are already acutely aware that many others have made strong starts to the campaign. As things stand, Harrington - 10th in the world points list and 12th on the European points list - is the best placed.

Jose Maria Olazabal, who will be vice-captain to Nick Faldo at the Ryder Cup, hopes to return to competitive action in next week's Qatar Masters. There were fears that he could be forced into early retirement from the sport.

The 41-year-old Spaniard hasn't played since the US PGA in Tulsa last August due to rheumatism in his knee and shoulder. Olazabal missed almost 18 months on tour in the mid-1990s due to health problems, but he has started hitting balls again.

In September he returned to Munich to see specialist Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, the doctor who saved his career last time.

"I was worried I was going to be out for a long time again because of the amount of pain I went through," said Olazabal.

"I forced myself to play the US PGA (his last appearance) to fulfil my number of tournaments in the States, even though I knew my condition was not the best.

"I've seen a lot of doctors and they've done all kinds of tests. They know it's some kind of rheumatism, but they don't know what has caused it and it's just a matter of treating the symptoms until they go away."

When he was appointed as vice-captain to Faldo (along with McGinley, who later gave up that role to concentrate on making the team as a player), Olazabal stated that it was his primary goal to make the team.

However, his time out through injury means that Olazabal has given a head-start to everybody else and faces an uphill climb if he is to make the team by right.