Harrington an obvious choice, says Monty

NEITHER Colin Montgomerie nor any of his three vice-captains would reveal anything about their deliberations before announcing the three Ryder Cup wild card picks at Gleneagles last night.

But it can be safely taken for granted that Padraig Harrington has clung on for his sixth appearance in the match by the veritable skin of his teeth.

Indeed, were it not the undisguised respect Montgomerie has for Harrington, I fully belief he would have been left on the sidelines. Of course, it would have been extremely difficult to omit a three times major champion but Harrington’s form since he captured the most recent of those titles more than two years ago has been relatively disappointing.

Moreover, he had a poor record in each of the last two Ryder Cups and some of his greatest admirers were less than impressed when he failed to come back to Europe and fight for his place in the last two counting tournaments. Monty and his vice captains Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn were only too well aware of those facts but all the indications are that they were unanimous in their view that he should be in the side. “Pádraig Harrington has massive stature in the game,” Montgomerie declared. “Three major championships in the last three years … he is someone we feel that nobody in match-play golf wants to play.”

There will be widespread relief throughout the country that Harrington has squeezed into the side for he certainly didn’t make things easy for himself. Certainly you would have needed to be deaf over the last week at Gleneagles not to have heard so many players, caddies and officials decrying his decision not to compete either in the Czech Republic last week or in the Johnnie Walker. Playing a mere three tournaments in Europe this year has gone down like a lead balloon with these people, and it left him in need of a pick at a time when the captain had an unusually large number of candidates for the three places.

He has taken a huge amount of criticism in various elements of the media, especially in the UK with one esteemed writer and long time admirer of Harrington accusing Montgomerie of “misplaced loyalty”. And his advice to Monty? “Ditch your old flame.”

However, Monty wasn’t having any of that. He did admit it was “a consideration” that Harrington might have been left out but that applied to the other candidates as well.

“I could name 20 who were considered,” he maintained. “I just feel Pádraig’s stature in the game and the way he plays the game, the way he would give 110% to any cause and his work ethic made him an obvious choice. When Pádraig’s back is up against the wall, he comes out and produces fantastic performances and I’m expecting that at Celtic Manor.”

When seeing things a little more clearly over the weekend, Harrington himself acknowledged: “Anyone who doesn’t qualify doesn’t deserve to be there. If I’m not selected, I’ll regret not doing a slightly different schedule. I had set my schedule with the expectation of playing good golf and expecting to qualify. I definitely should have played more counting events.”

He has got away with it for now and although Paul McGinley doesn’t believe the circumstances in which Harrington qualified for the side will impose undue pressure on him at Celtic Manor in five weeks time, you can already feel the critics sharpening their knives if he fails to deliver more than the single point accruing from his last two Ryder Cup appearances.