Harrington will not be at the first World Match Play to be held in Spain

Padraig Harrington will not compete in next month's World Match Play Championship in Spain because it clashes with the Singapore Open.

Both events are part of the European Tour schedule and will be played between 29 October and 1 November.

The 38-year-old Harrington would almost certainly have qualified for the Match Play but has opted out, following the lead of current champion Ernie Els.

Els, 39, had already announced he would play in Singapore instead.

The South African would have been aiming for a record eighth Match Play crown, with all seven of his titles won at the event's former home Wentworth.

Els, who won the last World Match Play which was held in 2007, said: "I would love to have played in both tournaments because I'd have been defending champion for the Match Play.

"But it is not possible to be in two places at once."

South African Els added that he was in the fourth year of a four-year contract to compete in the $5 million Singapore Open.

Els and Harrington finished joint runners-up to India's Jeev Milkha Singh in Singapore last year.

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