Charley Hoffman says he has no hard feelings towards Corey Pavin about missing out on the Ryder Cup the day after the performance of his life.

“No disappointment,” insisted the 33-year-old, who took the second of the FedEx Cup play-off events by five shots with a closing 62 on Monday and then heard that a wildcard had gone instead to 21-year-old rookie Rickie Fowler, yet to win on the US Tour.

“I had all year to play my way on the team. And when you leave it up to the captain’s pick you can’t be disappointed because you had your chance to earn your spot.

“If I was maybe nine or 10 (on the points list) like Anthony Kim or something like that I might be disappointed, but I wasn’t really even on the radar.

“Obviously I would have been honoured to be picked, but no disappointment there at all.”

Hoffman, up from 132nd to 51st in the world, finished way down in 57th place on the American qualifying table.

What he can do now, of course, is make Pavin question his decision by playing well again in this week’s BMW Championship in Chicago and then the Tour Championship in Atlanta in a fortnight’s time.

A £6.5million prize is the incentive for him to do just that.

Pavin might also secretly be keeping his fingers crossed that Kim does not suddenly recapture form.

The 25-year-old was a star of the last United States team and looked a certainty for this year’s side even when he returned last month from thumb surgery in May.

But he was pushed out of the top eight and, after failing to make a halfway cut since, he lost out to Fowler, Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson.

The world number 16 - higher than Johnson, Fowler and Cink - tees off at Cog Hill on Thursday in 34th place on the FedEx Cup overall standings and so needs to climb only four spots to make into the field for the final play-off event.

Cink is one place below Kim, while world number one Woods at 51st probably needs a top-five finish to advance - something he has not managed since the US Open in June.

European captain Colin Montgomerie will be watching with interest too, not only as Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter are still involved, but also because Paul Casey and Justin Rose - his two notable wild card omissions - are there too.

Donald’s second-place finish on Monday lifted him to fifth in the FedEx race, just ahead of Scot Martin Laird, while Rose is 10th, Casey 21st, McIlroy 29th and Poulter 44th.

The Big Easy has become a big noise again. Ernie Els had promised to play major championship golf on the final day of the Arnold Palmer Invitational here at Bay Hill, but if his rivals had interpreted this as a guarantee of caution and conservatism, they were sorely mistaken.

If Els’ triumph at Doral a fortnight ago had appeared an anomaly, a rare fillip for a former great battling the advancing autumn of his career, this was the moment he proved the threat he would take to the Masters. While Phil Mickelson, traditionally deemed the main menace to Woods at Augusta, offered a mere footnote on two over par, Els, at 11 under, was poised to resume a championship challenge this morning after rain saturated the Orlando course for three hours.

Rarely does a player’s renaissance owe so much to a rigorous work ethic. Els has never lost a fraction of his formidable natural talent but has finally acquired the discipline to harness it, recruiting coach Butch Harmon to help repair the frayed edges of his game. The work has been remorseless and, until the Doral breakthrough, had, by the 40 year-old’s own admission, no “end game”, just an endless repetition of practice drills.

Harmon, with a reputation forged by his work with Woods and Mickelson, has found his role in Els’ team reduced of late, but the two have kept in regular contact by text. The squat New Yorker even turned up at the Bay Hill driving range for 10 minutes on Saturday, not that his pupil’s incomparably rhythmic swing has ever seemed to need much refinement.

Els has engineered this revival largely on his own, a fact that made his self-assurance down the stretch yesterday all the more impressive. As his nearest challengers, Americans Ben Curtis and Chris Couch, receded amid a hail of errors forced by stiff breezes, he continued to cut a swathe across the field with some sublime shot-making. One minor inconvenience arose at the ninth, where an errant drive left him to a hack a second shot out of tangled rough. The resulting chip, a tricky 45-yarder, tested his scrambling ability but, as befitting a man apparently impervious to pressure, he holed it.

Only on the back nine did the strain manifest itself. Els, whose metronomic putting has set him on course for four sub-70 rounds this week, had drawn five shots clear with birdies at the 10th and 12th, but a leaked tee shot on the intimidating par-four 13th, its green guarded by a lake, spelt trouble.

Els, his wisdom deserting him for once, contrived an audacious bunker shot that left him with a face full of sand, a ball in the drink, and a double-bogey six.

Another mistake at the 14th, where Els again found sand, reeled him back to 11 under and cast the first doubts over his championship credentials. The sound of the horn suspending play, as a thunderstorm broke overhead, came at the right time, with the break giving Els the time to re-gather his ‘major’ mindset.

Els ascribes his upturn in form to several factors, from his work in establishing an autism foundation on behalf of his seven-year-old son, Ben, to the type of ball he is using. Since he lost last November’s HSBC Champions event in Shanghai to Mickelson by one stroke, he has reverted to a softer ball and argued that the subtlety of his short game returned in an instant. He has also spoken effusively about the restoration of ‘V-grooves’, declared legal by the United States Golf Association this year and credited by many top tour professionals with giving a more reliable ball flight.

Such slight changes have enabled Els to give glimpses of his best: indeed, there were echoes yesterday of his last victory at Bay Hill in 1998, which he won with a closing 73 as the rest of the contenders fell back. There were storms in the air that day, too, but the greatest thunderclap this time was reserved for Els, announcing his return to golf’s aristocracy loud and clear.

Lee Westwood wore Tiger Woods red on Sunday as he attempted to end two years in Europe without a victory.

Francesco Molinari wore Stewart Cink ogre-green as he tried to end three years without a victory. As usual Tiger-red triumphed and with this win at the Portugal Masters Westwood now goes top of the Race to Dubai ahead of Rory McIlroy.

The 36-year-old Englishman was both skilful and fortunate. On the 17th hole he baled out of his dangerous second shot over water, but was lucky that his nervy hoik finished in an ornamental shrubbery near a path from which he got a free drop.

The bad news was that he now faced a flop shot, off a bare lie, over some small trees, to a green with water beyond. He said earlier in the week that the weakness in his game is from 80 yards in. On Sunday Westwood played one of the shots of his life, all but holing the pitch and leaving a tap-in for birdie. It was just reward for an awful lot of hard work in the previous two years.

Poor Molinari watching back in the fairway must have been cursing his luck. The Italian had just jabbed a short putt for par left of the hole on the 16th green, having putted brilliantly earlier in the afternoon. But his old weakness had come back at the crucial moment.

At the start of the week Westwood said he wanted put himself in a position where a win in Dubai next month would guarantee he would finish top of the money list. By Saturday night it was no longer about the money, it was about winning.

Westwood’s caddie Billy Foster, who used to caddie for Seve Ballesteros, has been reprising the great Spaniard’s mantra all week “second is no good.” On Sunday evening Westwood became a winner again, just as he was back in 2000 when he had six victories and was known as the most ruthless closer on tour. Westwood can now take that winning feeling on into next year’s majors, having become such a formidable player in the big championships.

But spare a thought for Molinari. Like Westwood he is one of the best ball strikers on Tour, but Molinari fears the putter. Before his round Gary Wolstenholme, the conqueror of Molinari in the semi-final of the 2003 Amateur Championship, said: “Can he conquer his nerves? He was exceptionally long as an amateur but his putting was always a genuine weakness.” This time the weakness proved still as genuine as this Italian, who can yet become an important member of Colin Montgomerie’s Ryder Cup team.

Despite winning three majors, Padrraig Harrington is driven by the need to improve his game.

Many people thought that Padraig Harrington had gone mad. How could anyone win three majors and then start messing about with their game? Harrington’s answer is a simple one. He wasn’t going any higher.

Harrington believed that he had reached the top of his ascent and he could still see people above him. Harrington was not able to accept third best.

All day Harrington has been working on his game under the Portuguese sun. As Harrington grinds on the practice ground, Phil Bonham of Wilson has been grinding his irons in the equipment truck. It’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon and still they are grinding, searching for an ever sharper groove.

Harrington pauses and says: “My attitude is, yeah, I’ve won three majors but I want to get better. I would say that I had peaked at No 3 in the world when I won the three majors. I had peaked unless I did something to change and get better. Right or wrong that’s my nature. There’s no change in my nature, you got that right.”

Those who have questioned Harrington’s need to make changes might as well question why the river runs to the shore. Nature. It is the story of the scorpion who persuades the frog to give him a ride and then stings him halfway across the raging river. As they both accept their approaching deaths, the scorpion explains: “It’s my nature.”

Harrington has to keep trying to get better. It’s his nature. That nature won him three majors. It drives coach Bob Torrance mad and it keeps Harrington almost sane. He says: “I’m a happier person, even if I’m playing badly, if I know I’m going forward. Bob takes it to heart. It’s not easy for him if I don’t perform. I’m much better at saying this is all part of the process going forward.”

Some questioned if Harrington was as mentally sun-dried as we had thought after he dumped balls in the water in successive tournaments back in August. Harrington is amused at the thought that he might be haunted by those shots.

He says: “Someone said to me the other day: ‘Don’t hit it in the water’. Well, I could avoid hitting it in the water, but I wouldn’t be trying to win the tournament. That’s the fact. Tom Kite used to say he could lead greens-in-regulation stats every week if he wanted to, but he wouldn’t win the tournament by hitting it in the middle of the green.

“You have to take some chances. At Bridgestone I could have chipped it out to 15 feet, two-putted for my bogey, lost the tournament to Tiger [Woods] by a shot and everyone would say: ‘Oh well’. There’s a place where you are pushed into it and you have to go for it.

“At the PGA I came to a tough par-three. I didn’t feel I could afford to make bogey. I played lovely all day, but I hadn’t holed anything in the first seven holes. I didn’t feel I had the luxury of bailing out like a lot of people bailed out. I felt I had to go for it. You live by the sword, you die by it.”

If you want to second-guess Harrington’s decision, then look back at what Y E Yang did. He went for that flag, like Harrington. Tiger bailed out, like Lucas Glover and many, many others. Yang hit the shot of the day, caught Tiger and changed the future. Who is to say Harrington was wrong?

Still Harrington’s mind rages on. It must wear him out sometimes. Next year Harrington could accept not winning a major again, but only, precisely if “I’ve done everything I can.” But he would far rather “be pushed over the edge” by the effort of winning two majors and suffer the same exhaustion that led to his poor performance at the 2008 Ryder Cup.

He agrees that it was an issue and says that if Colin Montgomerie wants to rest him before next year’s Ryder Cup then he could now accept that. Harrington doubts whether even a year ago he could have admitted the need to rest, but “I’m better able to tell who I am now”.

So, who is he?

Harrington is the man who has won three majors, tied with Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson. The next one to “win and get to four will set them apart.” And the one who wins Olympic gold will stand even further apart in Harrington’s mental labyrinth.

He says: “I want to win an Olympic gold because when I’m 70 years of age and looking back, we might be counting that as a major. The majors weren’t the majors 60 years ago. I think it’s going to grow.”

There are not many professional sportsmen who can get past the present like that. But Harrington has always looked into the future. The trick is not to go blind when staring at the sun. Or mad. Welcome to the sun-dried mind of Padraig Harrington. It’s fascinating, but it’s a maze that you wonder if even he always knows the way out.

George O’Grady, the chief executive of the European Tour, announced on Monday that the Race to Dubai prize money would be cut by $5 million, a reduction of 25 per cent. What he did not say was whether the end of season cash climax would even be in existence next year and why so many other costs remained unpaid.

Telegraph Sport understands that O’Grady and Keith Waters, the director of International policy, were unable to get any assurances over the Race to Dubai’s long-term future during their three-day visit to Dubai last week. Recent reports suggest that the Race to Dubai might be cut from a five-year agreement to a three-year deal.

But when the European Tour officials met their UAE business partners they could not even confirm a one-year extension, although that is now the most likely outcome.

O’Grady said on Monday: “We have been assured that our agreement is proceeding substantially as planned.

“The European Tour has offered to reduce the prize money to reflect the worldwide economic position and we will jointly examine prize money levels in future years in the light of this developing global situation.

“The Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates looks superb and work is being completed on the public areas, car parks and access roads.”

When the European Tour first announced the deal in November 2007, it included a five-year commitment, $100 million of prize money and a further $50 million war chest. Part of the $50 million was to cover branding at other tournaments, but many of those costs remain unpaid.

Hamza Mustafa, managing director of Nakheel Leisure, said: “Nakheel is committed to The Race to Dubai and the Dubai World Championship.

“The prize funds for both competitions are significant amounts that are worthy of the season-ending tournament and world-class field that will be competing, yet reflective of a new economic climate.”

Earlier this year O’Grady said: “Our five-year contract is safe. We are not renegotiating it. They [the Dubai government] might have moved it from Leisurecorp to Nakheel, but the bones of the contract remain the same. We are financially sound and secure.”

Those bones are now virtual dust. The European Tour will stage a cut-price ‘Dubai World Championship’ in November that presently lacks even a one-year guarantee. картинки анимэ эротикой