Harrington says decision was right and proper

Padraig Harrington was in the gym when the news came. It didn't come as any great surprise, though. And the decision to postpone the Ryder Cup for a year - until September 2002, with the same teams as those originally due to do battle at The Belfry next week - was one with which the Dubliner fully concurred.

"When you look at the bigger picture, I believe that the decision to postpone it for a year is probably the right one," remarked Harrington, who had spent much of the past golfing year ensuring that his name would be on the team-sheet.

"The Ryder Cup is a big event, it is not just like another golf tournament. But when you compare it with what happened in America last week, then it is not the most important thing in the world. As a mark of respect, it is probably correct that it is postponed."

Rather than reopening the whole qualifying process, Harrington also felt that it was only right and fitting that the players who had qualified for the event this time round should be the ones selected to play in next year's rescheduled meeting, "especially for the likes of Paul (McGinley) and Phillip (Price) who have qualified and who would be competing in the Ryder Cup for the first time."

Harrington added: "I think that postponing the matches for a year is the best thing for everyone. What's a year? We can wait . . . If it had gone ahead next week, I am sure that a lot of players would not have been focused, and that would not have been right because it is a really big occasion.

"As a European player, I am 100 per cent behind the decision taken by the Americans. It was totally their call and this whole tragedy affects them a whole lot more than it affects any of us. Over the past week, I have seen just how much pressure they have all been under."

This is the first time since 1975 - when Christy O'Connor Jnr, Eamonn Darcy and John O'Leary were on a team under the old Britian and Ireland selection - that three Irishmen had qualified to play under the European team set-up.

For Darren Clarke (who played at Valderrama in 1997 and Brookline in 1999), who led the European qualifying, it would have been a third appearance, while for Harrington (who made his debut in Brookline), and who was second in the qualifying table, it would have been a second appearance. McGinley, who qualified in seventh position in the European table, was due to make his debut in the competition.

Harrington, Clarke and McGinley all arrived back in London on Saturday from the US, where they were in St Louis for the American Express world strokeplay championship, which was cancelled because of the atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, on a chartered flight and had expected to hear news of the Cup's postponement.

Ryder Cup rookie Pierre Fulke also felt the move to postpone the matches was "the only decision that could have been taken."

Fulke, who was also on that chartered plane that brought the European-based players back from St Louis, added: "Everybody's gut feeling after Tuesday was that the Ryder Cup would be in danger, and you have to understand the American players who did not want to travel, and it is the only decision.

"From a personal point of view, if they had cancelled it, it would have been a disappointment. But it has only been postponed and so we will still be Ryder Cup players next year. On the way back from the States, all the European team agreed that we wanted the match to go ahead, but the decision has basically been made by the US team.

"We don't know what is going to happen. It could be World War III or something, so I think it is a very good decision."

Meanwhile, former Ryder Cup player Christy O'Connor Jnr, who is one of those with his hat in the ring for the captaincy in 2005 when it will be played at the K Club, remarked: "The main thinking would be that the Americans wouldn't have the Ryder Cup on their minds. They would not feel they were giving 100 per cent and, with the Ryder Cup, you need 100 per cent. But I am delighted that they haven't cancelled it."