Harrington qualifies for Seve Trophy team

Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose, Luke Donald and Paul Casey are the first four players to qualify for the Britain and Ireland team to defend the Seve Trophy against Continental Europe at The Heritage in Ireland in two weeks’ time.

The quartet earn places based on their world ranking positions today. Four more will come from the European Order of Merit after this week’s Mercedes-Benz Championship in Germany and then captain Nick Faldo will add two wild cards.

For Seve Ballesteros’s side the first four are Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Niclas Fasth and Anders Hansen, although whether everybody is available for the match remains to be seen.

As things stand, the next in line for Britain and Ireland are Colin Montgomerie, Graeme Storm, Bradley Dredge and Oliver Wilson and for Continental Europe Soren Hansen, Gregory Havret, Raphael Jacquelin and Peter Hanson.

Already known to be out of the reckoning for a wild card are Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter. Westwood wants to rest, Poulter is getting married.

Harrington has also claimed the last place in the field for this week's Tour Championship in Atlanta.

The Dubliner is included after Donald failed to secure the score he needed at the BMW Championship last night to take a place in the 30-man field.

However, he has no chance of winning of the $10m (€7.24m) jackpot on offer this week, as Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson, Rory Sabbatini and KJ Choi are the only golfers who can top the points race.