If not exactly the stuff of crystal balls and soothsaying, the collective decision - for one reason or another - of Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke to miss last weekend's French Open couldn't have worked out better.
A South African and a New Zealander battling it out in Bordeaux meant that nobody stole a march on them in the Ryder Cup points table and all three resume their tournament campaigns in the Benson and Hedges International Open at The Oxfordshire, starting on Thursday, the first event of the season in Britain and the start of a mega-rich sequence on the European Tour.
Clarke, the defending champion, has better reason than most to welcome the return of the tour to a venue where he knows what it is like to emerge a winner. He has endured a poor start to the season and finds himself a lowly 104th in the moneylist. The Ulsterman returns to the circuit after a three-week break during which time he nursed a "tweaking muscle" in his back, which has now disappeared with a combination of rest and physiotherapy.
Ironically, his friend, Lee Westwood, now finds himself in a similar position after incurring a shoulder injury on the eve of the Compaq Classic in New Orleans and subsequently withdrawing midway through the event. Westwood is included in the field for the Oxfordshire, but will continue to have treatment on the injury this week in the run-up to the tournament.
"The injury first bothered Lee when he won the Macau Open last month," said manager Andrew Chandler, who also looks after Clarke, yesterday. "He thought it was tennis elbow then and rested it before flying to America last week.
"When he suffered a recurrence, though, it appeared as if it might be a trapped nerve in his shoulder. Obviously we want to get this checked out. Lee flew home on Saturday night and until he gets it looked at later today I can't say anything about this week's tournament.
"In fact, we probably won't know until Wednesday. Westwood is down for the eve-of-tournament celebrity Pro-Am, which will now amount to a fitness test."
Clarke's injury, meanwhile, meant he was curtailed in the amount of work he could do in his time off from golf (the Macau Open the week after the US Masters was his last tournament) but he did manage some work on his short game and, since splitting with coach Pete Cowen, has stated he wants to place less of an emphasis on the technical side of his game.
In contrast, Harrington travelled over to the Oxfordshire early to prepare for the tournament and yesterday underwent some work at the course with his coach Bob Torrance. Although second in the Italian Open two weeks ago, the Dubliner believes he still has room for improvement. "I've definitely neglected my short game and I want to get it back to where it was two years ago," he stated.
In all, there are seven Irish players in the field for the Benson and Hedges. Clarke, Harrington and McGinley are joined by Eamonn Darcy, who secured his first top-five finish in four years at the French Open, Philip Walton, John McHenry and Des Smyth.
This is a tournament which Ryder Cup captain Mark James expects to kickstart serious manoeuvres in the battle for an automatic place on the team to face the United States at Brookline in September, and Colin Montgomerie - who, like Clarke, is also returning after a three-week break from the game - and Nick Faldo, learning that life on the European Tour is as hard as it is on the US circuit, are also included in the field.
Meanwhile, three Irish players - Richie Coughlan, Bryan Omelia and Peter Lawrie - will continue their Asian Tour programmes this week by competing in the Tiangin Warner International in China.
