Ireland's Padraig Harrington wants to get more than one monkey off his back when he starts his golfing year at the Malaysian Open this week.
Harrington is looking to end a run of near-misses in the tournament, having been runner-up twice and in the top 10 on two other occasions.
The 34-year-old Ryder Cup stalwart also hopes to avoid a repeat of his experience at last year's event when he fell victim to a mischievous monkey.
"I was playing a practice round with Stephen Browne on the Monday when a monkey made off with my binoculars at the eighth tee and went straight up a tree with them," Harrington told the European Tour's official website.
"We could see him trying to eat them and taunting us with them. A caddie went to get them back and an hour later he caught up with us with the binoculars in his hands.
"The monkey had done more damage to them with his teeth than anyone could have done with a knife. Buttons were ripped off and chunks taken out of them but luckily enough they still worked."
Harrington finished the tournament in joint eighth, falling away with a closing 74 that left him 11 shots behind Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee who won the title for the second year running.
If Thongchai can repeat the feat in this year's European Tour event he will join Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie and Ian Woosnam in an illustrious group who have won the same title three years in a row.
The eighth edition of the Malaysian Open, which offers a prize fund of one million euros ($1.19 million), starts on Thursday.
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