Harrington faces long road back for Ryder Cup redemption

Despite his many fine performances in recent weeks, including top 10 finishes in the Masters along with the US and Irish Opens, Pádraig Harrington is still a long way off clinching one of the automatic 10 places in Europe’s Ryder Cup team to face the United States at Medinah in October.

However, he must now be very much in captain Jose-Maria Olazabal’s mind for one of his two ‘wild card’ picks, having been obliged to admit, little more than a month ago that he didn’t believe he had much chance of making the side this year.

In all probability, Harrington needs a tournament win or another big performance in the season’s two remaining major championships, the Open at Royal Lytham St Annes in a fortnight and the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in August.