Tour Scene/News round-up: Officially, at least, the PGA European Tour's 2005 season finishes with this week's Volvo Masters at Valderrama, a €4 million tournament confined to the top 60 in the money list. In fact, only 56 of those players, six of them Irish, will tee it up in Spain for the season's finale; and none of them will be putting away their clubs for long, as the new 2006 season is just around the corner.
There are no fewer than five tournaments scheduled prior to the short Christmas break, and, for the elite of the elite, other gravy-train, non-official tournaments await around the globe.
For all that, the Volvo Masters is one of the flagship tournaments on the European Tour and one well worth capturing, with €666,660 on offer to the winner. And the sizeable purse could yet determine the outcome of the race for the Order of Merit title, with Colin Montgomerie, in pole position, going head-to-head with US Open champion Michael Campbell.
Monty has been there, done that. With a record seven successive Order of Merit titles, the Scot knows what it takes to claim this particular crown, and his rise to 15th in the world rankings, having started the year in 81st, is a reflection of the renaissance Montgomerie has enjoyed this season.
He arrives in the south of Spain seeking his first Order of Merit title since 1999, after a season that has seen him win the Dunhill Links championship, finish second to Tiger Woods in the British Open, both at St Andrews, and record 10 other top-10 finishes.
And, in many ways, there is a symmetry with his nearest challenger for the money title, with Campbell starting the year at 89th in the world but rising to 16th after winning the US Open and the World Matchplay titles, the latter in which he defeated Paul McGinley in the final.
Campbell, who is chasing his first Harry Vardon Trophy, which is presented to the money winner, trails Montgomerie by €153,486 going into the final counting event of the season.
In addition to Montgomerie, the field contains six other former winners: Darren Clarke (1998), Swede Pierre Fulke (2000), Padraig Harrington (2001), Spain's Miguel Angel Jiménez (1999) and Englishmen Ian Poulter (2004) and Lee Westwood (1997).
A number of sub-plots will also be running throughout what promises to be an intriguing week. Those who finish in the top 15 in the Order of Merit will qualify for the 2006 US Open Championship at Winged Foot, while a top-20 place guarantees entry into next year's British Open at Hoylake in July.
Paul McGinley is the leading Irishman in the Order of Merit, positioned in sixth with earnings of €1,629,762, and in line for a career-best finish in his 14th season on tour. His best finish came in 2001 when he was eighth on the money list.
The Irish contingent is completed by Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie, who is returning to play after a month's break due to the birth of his first child, and Damien McGrane, who secured the 60th and final qualifying place in the field. However, four players who qualified to play have declined to take up their places, the most notable being third-placed Retief Goosen and Thomas Bjorn, who has been ill.
Elsewhere, Des Smyth and Mark McNulty, who have both won twice on the Champions Tour this season, will finish their commitments in America this week in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in California, a tournament that Zimbabwean-turned-Irishman McNulty is defending.
Meanwhile, the First Tee of Ireland was launched at Druids Glen Golf Resort in Co Wicklow yesterday by its executive director, Joe Louis Barrow, and Philip Lynch, the chairman of the Educate Through Sport Foundation.
The Educate Through Sport Foundation is a nonprofit group developed to implement The First Tee Life Skills Experience in Ireland. The First Tee of Ireland is also supported by the International Federation of PGA Tours through a portion of the charitable proceeds from the World Golf Championships events held in Ireland.
