Glory trumps cash for Harrington

Glory hunter Padraig Harrington insists that money means nothing as he goes all out for his second Order of Merit title.

The Dubliner will claim the Harry Vardon Trophy if he wins the final edition of the €4.25m Volvo Masters at vicious Valderrama.

And while he’s earned close to €30 million (euro) in his career and turned down megabucks contracts from Nike and Callaway to stick with Wilson, titles are all that matter to Ireland’s triple major winner.

Bracing himself for a massive test at the wind-lashed Spanish track, Harrington said: “Thankfully, and in the day and age that it is at this moment, I'm in the great position that I am very much focused on titles.

“Titles first, with majors being right on top of that, followed by the World Rankings.  Those are the things that you get focused on.

“Thankfully throughout my career, I've been motivated by going out there and winning and financial stuff follows.  That’s definitely the best way to go about it.”

Harrington is reputed to have been offered $10 million a year to sign a head-to-toe deal with Nike and $8 million by Callaway to leave Wilson.

But he turned those massive offers down and is only interested in closing the€297,425 (euro) gap that separates him from Order of Merit leader Robert Karlsson and his second Harry Vardon Trophy.

Second place his week will be good enough for Harrington if Karlsson finishes outside the top five and outsiders Lee Westwood and Miguel Angel Jimenez fail to win.

But Harrington confessed that while he will not be gutted if he comes up short this year, he will be going all out to wrap up his double major winning season in style.

He said: “I'm not even leading the Order of Merit so it would not bother me greatly at this very moment in time if I didn’t win it.

“But I would like to win the Order of Merit.  There's a number of players who played very well this year and it would be nice to come out on top.

“I think Robert has played excellent.  I think Lee Westwood has really come back into form. It's a good year to win the Order of Merit.  Certainly whoever wins this on Sunday has really earned it this year.

“Robert is a fine player and if he wins on Sunday, he thoroughly deserves it.  I think he has played superb golf this year and very consistent.

“If you beat him this week, as I said, I'll know I've done a good job. He probably deserves it, but that doesn't mean he gets it.  We have to wait until Sunday to sort that out.”

Ireland will have a record seven competitors in action this week with Harrington joined by Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy.

But the final edition of the event is taking place under a cloud as Seve Ballesteros battles for his life in a Madrid hospital.

And Harrington reckons that the European Tour has missed an opportunity to use Ballesteros instead of Harry Vardon as the tour's new logo when the Race to Dubai  tees off in Shanghai.

He said: “We have Harry Vardon there.  Why isn't Seve?  He is the man when you think about it.  He is The European Tour, and it's only at times like this that you kind of say, well, we wish we had more of Seve.

“I know players love to idolise him as we all did when we were growing up.  It's when you feel like you are losing something that you wish you had made more of that time with Seve.”