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Lee Westwood insists he is more interested in winning a first major title than coming out on top in this year's Order of Merit.
Westwood will battle it out with Rory McIlroy, Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher to finish top of the money list at the season-ending Dubai World Championship.
But the 36-year-old said: "I've won an Order of Merit (in 2000).
"Majors are things that I haven't won and they are the things that I'm gearing my game towards."
Westwood was leapfrogged at the top of the standings by Rory McIlroy after finishing well down the field in last week's Hong Kong Open - where his 20-year-old rival came runner-up.
Yet victory in Dubai on Sunday would hand him the European number one crown regardless of what McIlroy does and even a seventh place finish would be good enough if the Northern Irishman puts in a bad display.
The tournament's first prize, even with a 25% cut due to the sponsor's financial worries, is over £740,000 and whoever wins the Order of Merit will collect a bonus of almost £900,000.
One putt at the end of the final round could, therefore, be worth more than £1.6m.
"I'd like to have about a 15-shot lead with one hole to play," said Westwood, dismissing the idea that part of him would like it to go to the wire.
Nine years ago it did as Westwood entered the deciding American Express world championship at Valderrama £62,000 behind Darren Clarke, but finished European number one by finishing second to Canadian Mike Weir.
"I don't think I've ever been as nervous as I was coming down the last needing to make a par," Westwood recalled.
"If you watch the TV pictures you will probably see that my knees were twitching. The two-foot putt I had to hole looked as if it was about 12 feet."
Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher could yet claim top spot, but it is McIlroy with whom Westwood will go head-to-head in the first round.
They last played together in Switzerland in September and finished level over the first two rounds.
That will do for McIlroy over 72 holes this week because he is the one with the lead thanks to his result in Hong Kong.
If Westwood does come up short he might rue several missed opportunities earlier in the year.
"I could have been standing here with a lead of £1m or £1.5m. I bogeyed the last two holes of the St Andrews Links to go from about fifth to ninth, bogeyed the (par-five) last hole in China, bogeyed the last hole of The Open and lost a play-off (to Kaymer) in France."
A closing par at Turnberry would have put him in the Open play-off with Tom Watson and Stewart Cink, but instead he had to settle for third place there and at the USPGA a month later.
"It could have been a life-changing experience," Westwood said of The Open. "I'm not going to kid you. Since the PGA all of my thoughts on working on my game have been geared towards next April at Augusta (The Masters)." | 
