As it currently stands, there are 8 Irish players, north and south, on the European Order of Merit. There are currently 285 exempt players of some status or other competing which really brings into focus the scrap these players have to keep their tour cards and not have to visit Q school. I often wonder why we don’t have many more players because a country like Sweden, who have 26 representatives, don’t have a lot of golf available to them because of their weather … a lot of them go to the US on scholarships.
Here is how our boys are doing, as of today :
(Position, name, events played, money earned)
1. Henrik Stenson – 7 – €1,615,383
9. Padraig Harrington – 5 – €476,909
73. Graeme McDowell – 5 – €96,403
82. Damien McGrane – 10 – €78,922
98. Peter Lawrie – 10 – €66,045
101. Darren Clarke – 6 – €64,092
111. Paul McGinley – 5 – €57,979
189. Gary Murphy – 8 – €18,845
247. David Higgins – 4 – €4,550
