Bjorn: Harrington is ‘out of order’

THOMAS BJORN, chairman of the European Tour players’ committee, has heavily criticised Pádraig Harrington for his reaction to a possible tightening up of membership rules.

“I don’t believe in protectionism – I wonder if there may be a case for the European Union,” Harrington had been quoted as saying after hearing that players may have to increase their commitment to some European events next season.

The issue will be discussed at committee level again in Portugal next week, but Bjorn said: “I don’t know where Pádraig is coming from, and he always uses the press.

“He never comes to people on the committee and never will do. It’s his committee – he does not seem tounderstand that. He seems to think that he is above it. We have discussions, he gets word of it and then he uses the press to slam the Tour.

“Pretty much everything we do is to protect our leading players, but as chairman I have to look at every member as an equal. I find it disappointing that he does not come to me and talk. Instead he goes to the press and then it becomes a public discussion. I don’t want to have a war of words with him, but we are a committee of 15 – and that includes people like Monty, Clarky, Stenson, Karlsson, Jimenez and McGinley.

“They have all been out here a long time, so whose opinion are we going to give more weight to? We love having Pádraig here in Europe, but there’s a lot of experience on that committee.

“He may have won three majors, but Monty has won eight Order of Merits and knows all there is to know about the Tour. We make decisions through discussions, and we also take a lot of lead from our executive.

“Pádraig would need to play only one more event here if this proposal goes through. That’s not asking a lot – and for him to threaten going to the European Union is out of order.”

Meanwhile, following the conclusion of the European and South American Qualifiers for the Omega Mission Hills World Cup, the 28 nations to contest the 55th staging of the event have been confirmed.

Canada, Wales, Scotland, Chile, Venezuela and Brazil took the last six available places at their respective qualifiers in Estonia and Venezuela to book their places to the outstanding Mission Hills Golf Club for the $5.5 million (€3.7 million) event from November 26-29.

Among the favourites to take the Cup are Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, England’s Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher, the Australian pairing of Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby, Denmark’s Søren Hansen and Søren Kjeldsen, Germany’s Martin Kaymer and Alex Cejka, the US team of Nick Watney and John Merrick and the South African pairing of Rory Sabbatini and Richard Sterne. The 28 Nations to contest the Omega Mission Hills World Cup:

1 Spain (Sergio Garcia/Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano); 2 Sweden (Henrik Stenson/Robert Karlsson); 3 Ireland (Rory McIlroy/Graeme McDowell); 4 England (Ian Poulter/Ross Fisher); 5 Germany (Martin Kaymer/Alex Cejka); 6 South Africa (Rory Sabbatini/Richard Sterne); 7 United States (Nick Watney/John Merrick); 8 Australia (Robert Allenby/Stuart Appleby); 9 Denmark (Søren Hansen/Søren Kjeldsen); 10 India (Jeev Milkha Singh/Jyoti Randhawa); 11 Thailand (Thongchai Jaidee/Pryad Marksaeng); 12 Argentina (Tano Goya/Rafa Echenique); 13 Italy (Francesco Molinari/Edoardo Molinari); 14 Japan (Ryuji Imada /Hiroyuki Fujita); 15 France (Thomas Levet /Christian Cevaer); 16 Chinese Taipei (Lin Wen-Tang/Lu Wei-Chih); 17 New Zealand (David Smail/Danny Lee); 18 Korea (YE Yang/Charlie Wi); 19 Wales (Stephen Dodd/Jamie Donaldson); 20 Scotland (David Drysdale/Alastair Forsyth); 21 Canada (Graeme Deleat/Stuart Anderson); 22 China (Liang Wen-chong/Zhang Liang-Wei); 23 Singapore (Lam Chih Bing/Mardan Mamat); 24 Philippines (Angelo Que/Marc Pucay); 25 Venezuela (Jhonattan Vegas/Alfredo Adrian), 26 Chile (Martin Ureta/Hugo Leon); 27 Pakistan (Muhammad Munir/Muhammad Shabbir); 28 Brazil (Rafael Barcellos/Ronaldo Francisco).