‘No pressure’ on Pádraig to deliver

AT much the same time as Colin Montgomerie was announcing Pádraig Harrington as one of his Ryder Cup wild card choices on Sunday, the Irishman was sitting promisingly among the top 10 in the Barclays Championship in New Jersey.

However, he subsequently slumped from six to one under par to finish back in a share of 47th and give additional ammunition to the critics, mainly UK-based supporters of Paul Casey and Justin Rose, that Harrington was a lucky man to get the call for Celtic Manor. On the face of it, all the more so after his fall from grace in the Barclays, it is not difficult to understand that point of view.

Furthermore, it surely imposes considerable pressure on the Irishman to deliver the goods at Celtic Manor in just under five weeks time. I put that point to Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke, two of the European vice captains, and yet they didn’t see things in that light at all.

“No, he’s not under pressure and we’ll not be putting pressure on Pádraig,” declared McGinley.

“We have 12 strong players and won’t be putting pressure on one player more than another. It’s not my position to speak to Pádraig. He’s a great friend of mine. That’s Monty’s job if he wants. I have no intention of overstepping my mark as vice captain. I think Pádraig has earned his place over the last two or three years. He has earned it because of his stature and what he has achieved in the game and the competitive instincts he shows when he plays. I’ve been fortunate to play with him in Ryder Cup matches as has Monty and we both see similar traits in what he can bring to the team.”

Clarke agreed: “Pádraig is a world-class player. He’s won three majors. Matchplay is a different game. We had long discussions about every players merits and those are the three players best suited to help Monty’s team.”

McGinley wasn’t prepared to say whether it was a close call between the five obvious candidates for the three places. I’m not going to say that one player was favoured over another or that another was first in,” he commented. “Certainly, Edoardo Molinari’s performance at Gleneagles was outstanding. All credit to him. He didn’t have to win but he did need a strong performance and that’s what he had. He deserves his place among the top 12 in Europe It wasn’t an easy decision to leave out the number nine ranked player in the world in Paul Casey. But he was up against some very strong contenders. Some really tough decisions had to be made and they were made.”

McGinley is often happy to bring up the old adage about form being temporary and class permanent and he can only hope the words won’t come back to haunt him. The Molinari brothers are two of six rookies in the team and, like it or not, all have to be short of the mark required for dealing with the unique pressure involved in the Ryder Cup.

The point wasn’t lost on Clarke: “Of all the guys who had qualified for the team today, Lee (Westwood) had six caps and the rest of them combined had six. That obviously shows there wasn’t that much experience, that was a factor and so we looked at everybody’s pros and cons… we have an unbelievable team and I feel for Paul Casey and Justin Rose that we had to leave out two of the best players in the world but that is the strength of the European Tour.”

And was it their own fault by playing so little on their own domestic circuit? Clarke didn’t respond directly except to comment: “Everybody had the opportunity to play. I know as well as everybody else you rely on a captain’s pick if you don’t qualify and I know that sometimes it doesn’t always go the way you hope.”

On the subject of the rookies, McGinley was similarly positive: “We had that discussion and it’s a point we made to each other and a hurdle we jumped. In our view, rookies are not what they were like back in Monty’s day or even my day. I don’t consider Martin Kaymer a rookie. I don’t consider Rory McIlroy a rookie. And that’s just to name two. As the game of golf has evolved into a world tour and evolved into these players winning major championships around the world, rookies cannot be used in the same terms as it was used 20 or 15 or ten years ago in my case.”

Reflecting on Harrington’s relative failure to build on his amazing achievements in 2007 and ’08, McGinley accepted “there have been extenuating circumstances concerning Pádraig’s Ryder Cup record. He won those two majors in ’08 and obviously he struggled at Valhalla. I played with him at The K Club and he actually played quite well and didn’t end up with too many points. In the singles, he came up against a brick well in Scott Verplank who played unbelievably to beat him. We halved that game together, the boys (Chad Campbell and Zach Johnson) finished with two birdies to get a half game against us so it’s a case of back to the old saying about class and form.”

It would be reassuring, though, if Harrington produced one big performance over the next few weeks.