Team-mates face play-off

Ryder Cup team-mates Padraig Harrington (pictured) and Henrik Stenson went into a play-off with South African Retief Goosen at the BMW International Open in Munich.

Ryder Cup team-mates Padraig Harrington and Henrik Stenson went into a play-off with South African Retief Goosen at the BMW International Open in Munich.

On the day his fellow Dubliner Paul McGinley hung onto his Ryder Cup place along with Jose Maria Olazabal, Harrington had a 12-foot chance to win on the closing par five but missed it.

He fell alongside Goosen and Stenson, who had finished, and then overnight leader David Howell missed a three-footer that would have put him into sudden death as well.

McGinley and Olazabal had been in danger of dropping out of the team, McGinley because he missed the cut and Olazabal because he controversially chose to take the week off.

But, one by one, the players who could have displaced them failed to achieve their goals.

Come the final round in Germany only Paul Broadhurst and Thomas Bjorn had a chance. They needed third and first place respectively, but finished 59th and 13th.

So McGinley and Olazabal became the ninth and 10th qualifiers, with European captain Ian Woosnam adding his two wild cards at 7pm German time (6pm Irish Time).