Dubliner is pick of Irish end of season harvest

BY KARL MacGINTY

PAUL McGINLEY is 'the man' of an unforgettable year for Irish professional golf.

No fewer than 11 victories were claimed for Ireland on the world's fairways in 2005. Pádraig Harrington won twice in the US as did Des Smyth on America's Champions circuit.

Stephen Browne and Belfast's Michael Hoey finished first in Kazakhstan and Austria on The Challenge Tour; Gary Murphy struck in the Azores and Gareth Maybin won on The Hooters circuit in America. Meanwhile, two Champions Tour successes by passport-holder Mark McNulty are also chalked up to Ireland.

Yet McGinley, 38, produced the daddy of them all at Valderrama, rocketing to an all-time high of 18th in the world by winning the Volvo Masters. McGinley has virtually assured his Ryder Cup place but all of Ireland will be watching for him at the Majors in 2006.

As we review the performance of the European Tour's nine card-carrying Irishmen this year, one phrase springs to mind.

McGinley - You Da Man!

PHILIP WALTON
HEART-WARMING. That's how the official European Tour Media Guide for 2005 described Philip Walton's graduation from final Q-School exactly one year ago.

Without a Tour card since losing his playing credentials in 1999, there seemed to be a wonderful symmetry to Walton's success at the sixth attempt.

The popular and innately gifted 43-year-old Dubliner would be able to mark the 10th anniversary of his match-clinching performance at the 1995 Ryder Cup in Oak Hill with a triumphant return to the upper echelons of the European game.

However, Walton would endure perhaps the darkest and most frustrating season of his entire career. Indeed, it's a measure of his Marciano-like refusal to give up, that Walton returns once again to final Q-School in San Roque this week determined to give it the proverbial 'one more shot'.

"I just lost my confidence," says Walton of a season in which he made just two cuts in 15 starts. "It's a pity but that's just the way it goes.

"You know what," Walton continues with grim irony. "I'm playing great now. Would you credit it?"

Fight on, slugger!

STEPHEN BROWNE
IT must go down as one of the highlights of the Irish golfing year. Moments after winning the inaugural Kazakhstan Open in the shadow of the snow-capped Tien Shen Mountains, Dubliner Stephen Browne then regaled his hosts with a splendid rendition of Danny Boy.

Browne, 31, who has been known to sing as well as swing for his supper, was having a tough time of it when he checked in at this Challenge Tour event, the first ever professional golf tournament in Central Asia.

Though he'd won his playing credentials at Q-School last November, Browne had found it difficult to get any momentum going in 2005 and properly bed-in the swing changes recommended by his veteran American coach Jimmy Ballard.

The majority of Q School cards provide limited access to tournaments and, if you don't hit the ground running in early events, simply retaining your status on Tour can become a serious problem.

Browne, for example, had no credentials at all for next season when he reported for duty in Almaty but then produced a performance to match his potential as a former European Amateur Champion. The €40,000 he picked up in Kazakhstan and the €10,000 he banked in sixth place at the Challenge Tour Grand Final sealed Browne's place in the top 20 on that Tour's money list, giving the 31-year-old dual exemption for 2006.

GARY MURPHY
FEW players are quicker with a quip than Gary Murphy, 33, and the dry Kilkennyman turned the pun on himself when describing the effects of a major swing changes in 2005.

"At times it's been more Hulk Hogan than Ben Hogan," said Murphy of the fruits of his efforts with famed Scottish coach Bob Torrance.

The Heritage professional added: "I've gone through a lot of changes in my game and, as a result, struggled for rhythm," added Murphy, who flirted with the top of the Tour leaderboard in May before finishing 11th at The Forest of Arden and then the BMW Championship.

October saw Murphy clinch only his second victory in eight years as a pro, adding the €40,000 Azores Open to his win in the 1997 Asian Tour School and strengthening his hopes of making an impact in the four pre-Christmas events on the European Tour's 2006 schedule - the China and Hong Kong Opens followed by the Dunhill Championship and South African Airways Open.

It paid off in spades as the feisty Meathman more than doubled his income to €408,581.

McGrane, 34, has impressed his peers on tour with his single-mindedness. "He's an example to us all," Harrington enthuses.

"Damien is perhaps the ideal role model for any player setting out."

Yet, remarkably, the ever-hungry McGrane wasn't happy with his lot in 2005. "I had to give my golf a chance and see what I could do but there is more to be achieved," he explained.

Don't be surprised if that first win comes in 2006.

PETER LAWRIE
NEW dad Peter Lawrie has no hesitation in nominating his highlight of 2005 - the arrival of baby Jessica in October.

Describing this happy event as "a life-changing experience" for himself and wife Philippa, Lawrie believes he might deliver the goods on the European Tour in the not too distant future.

After winning the 2002 Challenge Tour Grand Final, Lawrie became Ireland's first 'European Tour Rookie of the Year' in 2003 and has made steady progress ever since. Asked to sum up his efforts in 2005, the 31-year-old Dubliner said: "The usual - could do better. But we're getting there.

"The highlight of my year on the golf course came at Deutsche Bank - the way I played the final 36 holes.

"I felt very comfortable in a situation which normally might have induced panic," explained Lawrie, who finished in a tie for fifth at Gut Kaden, two strokes behind winner Niclas Fasth.

Playing in the final group with Fasth and Bradley Dredge as they completed two rounds that Sunday, Lawrie performed brilliantly, outshining his partners from tee to green but his putts simply refused to drop.

At the time, he couldn't help reflecting on what might have been but a tournament victory can't be too far away.

GRAEME McDOWELL
GRAEME McDOWELL had achieved so much in his first 30 months as a professional that it was always going to be hard for him to live up to expectations this year.

Sixth in the 2004 Order of Merit after claiming his second tournament victory on the European Tour, the Italian Open, McDowell made a roaring start to this season in the States.

After claiming a top 10 slot at Pebble Beach, McDowell produced a finishing 66 to tie Vijay Singh for second at Bay Hill. However, his debut at Augusta National would prove too much of a learning curve and the Portrush youngster missed the cut although he did impress playing partner Ben Crenshaw who said: "What a talent - he's got such beautiful rhythm."

The learning process continued as McDowell made it to the weekend at the US Open and then St Andrews but his prospects at the US PGA and, indeed, the latter half of his season were undermined by a back injury sustained in a car crash.

DARREN CLARKE
DARREN CLARKE delivered irrefutable evidence of his natural talent in 2005. Uncanny is the only word which adequately describes the Ulsterman's ability to produce seven top-10 finishes on either side of the Atlantic and maintain his place in the World Top 20 in 2005 as he supported his wife Heather in her long and grim struggle with cancer.

Understandably, Clarke's attention for much of this year has been focused utterly on his wife and their two young sons. As he wrote on his website in the autumn: "There are far more important things in the world than golf and my family is top of that list."

Despite his problems, Clarke went within a whisker of victory on a crazy final Sunday afternoon at The MCI Heritage in Harbour Town, when he effectively gifted the tournament to an equally lack-lustre Peter Lonard.

Because of the need to stay relatively close to home in recent months, Clarke had not played the requisite 15 tournament in the US this year to sustain his membership of the PGA Tour. While the Irishman has more pressing concerns on his mind right now, one would expect the American authorities to take a compassionate view of this situation.

PAUL McGINLEY
PAUL McGINLEY had landed a big one for himself. The diminutive Dubliner, the toast of his country and his continent for match-winning feats in the World and Ryder Cups, claimed the biggest prize of his career in last month's Volvo Masters.

"How does it rank alongside the Ryder Cup? You can't compare them. Winning the World Cup with Pádraig was huge and the Ryder Cup is something different again," said the 38-year-old. "But this is for Paul McGinley." The manner of McGinley's victory made Valderrama so special - the way he turned his heartbreaking defeat to Michael Campbell in the World Match Play at Wentworth several weeks earlier to his advantage as he came down the stretch in Spain.

He'd been too impetuous at Wentworth, both in the final of the Match Play and the closing stages of May's BMW Championship as he finished second to Angel Cabrera.

He learned from his mistakes though and, after wondering for so long how things might have gone for McGinley had Harrington not sunk that long final putt to deny him victory in the 2001 Volvo Masters, now we're going to find out.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON
IT started as if it was going to be a season to remember and unfolded as a year that Pádraig Harrington will never forget. The profound sorrow of losing his father, Paddy, to cancer last July renders insignificant anything that might have happened on the golf course in 2005.

When Harrington beat Vijay Singh in a play-off at The Honda Classic, only his fourth outing of 2005, we Irish looked forward with relish to the Dubliner's assault on the following month's US Masters.

Yet within 36 hours of his arrival home from The Honda, Harrington would learn that his father's cancer had returned and that it was untreatable. The wonder is not that Pádraig missed the cut both at Augusta and the subsequent US Open but that he managed to win a second tournament in the States, the Barclays Classic, the week after Pinehurst.

Though Harrington rolled home a 65-foot putt for eagle at the last to secure a truly dramatic victory over Jim Furyk at Westchester, he would complain at season's end that "I have not putted well all year".

In recent weeks, he has corrected that problem and seems to be close to finding a solution to recent wayward play off the tee, so don't rule out the prospect of another victory before the end of the year to go with that famous duo on the PGA Tour. Might it be next week's World Cup in Portugal?