Pádraig Harrington insists he’s not the man to lead Europe in Paris

There’s still a chance he could be persuaded to change his mind but as the USA celebrated its first Ryder Cup win for eight years, Pádraig Harrington insisted he was not the man to skipper a new generation of European stars in the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris.

The Dubliner, 45, was one of Darren Clarke’s five vice-captains at Hazeltine National but he says he’s determined to win his seventh Ryder Cup cap as a player at Le Golf National in two years’ time rather than become the third successive Irish skipper after Paul McGinley and Clarke. Asked his intentions for the 2018 Ryder Cup, Harrington said: “I want to play in 2018. That’s where I stand.”

You can’t get a much clearer statement of intent than that and as he moved quickly away, it was obvious he did not want to get into a series of hypothetical questions about what might make him change his mind.