Harrington makes sense of silly season

Padraig Harrington has surged to fifth place in the world money list after surviving the ultimate problem - a surging Tiger Woods - to win the Target World Challenge and $1m in California.

The Irishman now joins Lee Westwood and Thomas Bjorn among Europeans who have taken Woods on in four-round strokeplay tournaments and beaten him head-to-head.

The field, specially invited by Woods, was only 16-strong, which meant it was an unofficial event. But Harrington, asked whether he thought it amounted to a first win in America, responded: "Do I count it? Against Tiger? Yes. Against a world-class field? Yes."

The prize money hurtled Harrington up the world money list. Woods leads with $7,892,188 (£5m), followed by Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els. Harrington has $3,656,158, a distinct improvement on 2001 when, with just over $2m, he was placed 21st. And he has a further chance to improve his position when he plays in this week's World Cup in Mexico with Paul McGinley. The pair won this event in 1997 at Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

Harrington owes his position to some wonderful play in the last couple of months. After a successful Ryder Cup in September, in which he won two points from four matches, he went straight to St Andrews in October and won the Dunhill Links Championship with its £500,000 first prize.

Then last month he won the BMW Asian Open in Taiwan for a further £150,000, a victory that required him to hole a putt on the final green to avoid a play-off. "That was important," said Harrington. "It's the way you win which is as important as the win itself."

Harrington, who has been a runner-up 16 times in his career, won the Dunhill in a play-off, which will have further boosted his confidence. And so, in what is sometimes called golf's silly season, he has won, in three events alone, £1,316,666. As he remarked on Sunday: "It's only the silly season if you don't play well."

In California he started with rounds of 65 and 69 and then opened up a six-stroke lead over Woods with a third-round course record of 63. He stretched that to eight with birdies at the first two holes on Sunday but then stopped playing in the manner that had created his lead.

"I decided before I went out," said Harrington, "to play conservatively. Then, when I birdied those two holes, I decided to play very conservatively." It almost cost him the tournament.

Woods ate away at the lead, which by the 13th was down to two. "I heard a spectator say 'Now Tiger's in his head'," added Harrington, "and I thought to myself, 'He's been there all day.'"

At the 14th Harrington went out of bounds but was able to salvage a double bogey with a pitch and five-foot putt. "Because of that putt," he said, "I walked away feeling positive. Maybe Tiger thought I might drop a few shots over the closing holes but I was feeling quite comfortable."

In fact he played the final four holes in one under and it was Woods, who needed a birdie at the last to have any chance, who cracked. He pushed his second, bogeyed the hole and finished two behind.

"Beating Tiger was the thing," said Harrington. "You don't think about the money at the time but I must admit that $1m does spice it up a little. That's the lottery pay-off in Ireland."