Robert Karlsson is on the verge of becoming the first Swedish player to win the European Order of Merit, thanks to transforming himself from Mr Angry to Mr Consistency.
Despite Padraig Harrington claiming back-to-back major titles at the Open and USPGA Championship this year, Karlsson leads his Ryder Cup partner by £230,312 at the top of the money list.
The 39-year-old has accumulated 12 top-10 finishes and also claimed back-to-back victories, in the Mercedes-Benz Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, either side of his second cup appearance at Valhalla.
His performances in the majors were also second only to Harrington, with eighth in the Masters, fourth in the US Open, seventh in the Open and 20th in the USPGA helping him amass more than £2m in prize money.
Second place at this week's season-ending Volvo Masters would secure the Order of Merit title, and Karlsson puts his amazing consistency down to learning to control a volcanic temper.
He revealed: "I worked on my attitude on and off the golf course. I'm not wasting a lot of energy on bad shots and bad rounds. My toughest situation this year was obviously that 74 in the final round of the BMW Championship when he blew a four-shot lead, and I came back the week after and finished second in Wales.
"That was such big proof for me that I can handle pretty much any situation now, and that is the week that I am most proud of in my career.
"When I was inconsistent it was because when I had a good day, I was really, really upbeat, and when I had a bad day, I beat myself up pretty badly. I would have been hacked off, I would have wasted two days of being really, really angry. Now it's like okay, what happened happened, I'm going to learn from this'."
Lee Westwood and Miguel Angel Jimenez could also take the order of merit title, but Westwood needs to finish no lower than second in the Volvo Masters and Jimenez must win it - and Karlsson would need to finish well down the field.
Meanwhile, Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas have joined the European Tour for next season. The pair paid the £2000 fee for membership but will depend on invitations for any events they play in, the European Tour said.
Both players can feature in next season's Dubai World Championships, a $20m tournament that will replace the Volvo Masters from 2009 as the season finale to determine the tour's leading player.
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