Irish make their mark across world stage

Golf: Anyone endeavouring to work out the intricacies of the official world rankings is likely to burn a million brain cells.

Whatever about the mechanics of it, though, the rankings offer irrefutable proof of a player's upwards or downwards progress in a given year and the simple fact of the matter is that yesterday's final ranking of 2004 - which confirmed Vijay Singh's stellar year - provided confirmation for Ireland's top professionals of their current well-being in international terms.

With four players in the world's top-70, and the same quartet ranked inside the top-20 European players in the world rankings, the season just gone was generally a good one for Ireland's top tour professionals: Padraig Harrington has moved up from eighth to sixth in the world, Graeme McDowell from 234th to 55th in the official rankings, and Paul McGinley from 157th to 68th.

The only backward move came from Darren Clarke, who slipped from 11th to 14th.

All in all, then, and the Ryder Cup aside, it was a satisfying season overall for Irish tour players, with Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane consolidating their positions on the European Tour, with another two full card members in Philip Walton and Stephen Browne joining them on tour next season.

With Harrington, Clarke and McDowell all set to make the field for the 64-man WGC-Accenture Matchplay at La Costa in February, McGinley's main aim from the new season will be to make a fast start and, as such, he has added the Holden New Zealand Open to the early part of a campaign that will see him make a seasonal debut in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and also compete in the Malaysian Open, where Harrington will start out after his winter's hibernation.

McGinley underwent knee surgery the week after his third-place finish with Harrington in the World Cup in Seville last month and has pencilled in Pebble Beach on February 4th-8th for his return to competition. He then plays in New Zealand and Malaysia, after which the top 64 available players for the Accenture will be decided.

As things stand, the Dubliner is unable to undergo any gym work - "I can't do any bicycle work or treadmill or weights," he said - and is confined to some gentle exercise in the swimming pool.

However, his medical people are very happy with the progress he has made since undergoing his second knee operation of the year, and the player himself - who has just three European Tour wins in his career - is hoping to transfer his impressive team performances to the individual side of his game.

"I need to get my ass in gear a bit earlier next year," he said. "I have two great Ryder Cup memories now and I had a good World Cup too. But I have to become more goal oriented and transform my form in team events into my individual performances.

"There is definitely a gap between the way I perform in both. It is not a technical thing, it is more mental than anything."

Yesterday McGinley and his fellow-members of the European Tour tournament committee met at Wentworth to discuss nominations for the 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club. With Colin Montgomerie withdrawing his name from consideration last Friday, it would seem Bernhard Langer, who led Europe to a record win over the United States at Oakland Hills in September, is favourite to retain the position. If he wants the job.

Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle, along with Christy O'Connor Junior, Des Smyth and Eamonn Darcy, also made applications for the captaincy at Straffan in two years.

Ultimately, though, the captaincy for 2006 will be decided by the Ryder Cup committee, with an announcement likely to be made in the spring.

Tom Lehman has already been chosen as the American captain for the K Club, with the PGA of America changing the qualifying criteria to give added weight to performances in the year of the match.

Meanwhile, Vijay Singh has finished the most dominant year of his professional career as the world's number one. The Asia Japan Okinawa Open - won by Japan's Kiyoshi Miyazato, his total of 14-under-par 270 giving him a one-stroke win over India's Jeev Milkha Singh - last weekend was the final world ranking tournament of the calendar year 2004 and Singh has spent the last 17 weeks of the year as world number one since taking over from Tiger Woods.

Singh is the 12th player in the almost 19-year history of the official world rankings to be number one, joining Bernhard Langer (three weeks), Seve Ballesteros (61 weeks), Greg Norman (331 weeks), Nick Faldo (98 weeks), Ian Woosnam (50 weeks), Fred Couples (16 weeks), Nick Price (43 weeks), Tom Lehman (one week), Ernie Els (nine weeks), David Duval (15 weeks) and Woods (334 weeks) in having that distinction.

Meanwhile, Europe's Ryder Cup team has won the 2004 Golf Writers Trophy, with captain Langer finishing second in the annual poll.

The trophy, first awarded in 1951 and lifted last year by women's world number one Annika Sorenstam, is given to the individual or team, born or resident in Europe, who have made the most outstanding contribution to golf in the preceding 12 months.

World Rankings

1 Vijay Singh (Fij) 12.79pts ave

2 Tiger Woods (US) 11.60

3 Ernie Els (Rsa) 10.98

4 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 7.47

5 Phil Mickelson (US) 7.00

6 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 5.55

7 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 5.40

8 Mike Weir (Can) 5.40

9 Davis Love-III (US) 5.38

10 Stewart Cink (US) 4.65

11 Adam Scott (Aus) 4.33

12 Miguel A Jimenez (Spa) 4.32

13 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 4.16

14 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 4.14

15 Chris DiMarco (US) 3.86

16 Todd Hamilton (US) 3.72

17 Stephen Ames (Can) 3.59

18 Kenny Perry (US) 3.53

19 Chad Campbell (US) 3.51

20 David Toms (US) 3.44

55 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 2.10

68 Paul McGinley (Irl) 1.80