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Harrington says there's no need to tinker with selection system

GOLF RYDER CUP: AS PÁDRAIG Harrington yesterday winged his way from New Jersey up the eastern coast of the United States to …

PHILIP REID Golf correspondent
Tue Aug 31 2010 - 01:00

GOLF RYDER CUP:AS PÁDRAIG Harrington yesterday winged his way from New Jersey up the eastern coast of the United States to Boston for the next leg of the FedEx Cup season finale on the US Tour, the 39-year-old Dubliner – who'll make use of a captain's wild card pick for the first time in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor on October 1st-3rd – refuted any suggestion that the European Tour should tinker with the current qualifying system.

Although the system – covering 51 weeks and 47 tournaments, with the first four players qualifying off a worldwide points list and the next five from the European Tour list – contrived to ensure that a player ranked in the world’s top 10, in this case Paul Casey, failed to make the team, Harrington was of the view that it is players seeking to qualify who should adapt their schedules to meet the demands of the qualifying procedures in place rather than making any knee-jerk changes.

“No, the system’s very good,” responded Harrington when asked if there was a better way to produce a team.

“I knew the system was fair, we all knew at the start of the year . . . there’s no doubt myself, Paul (Casey), Justin (Rose) and Luke (Donald), we didn’t play enough in Europe to make it on the team automatically . . . it is a good, solid system.

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“You know what you need to do, and you know that you’ve got to be conscious. Certainly I will be more mindful in two years’ time that the money (list) is the way in.

“You’ve got to prioritise that (European) points system more (rather than the world points). I failed to do that, and it’s the same for the other guys that didn’t qualify automatically. We didn’t play enough.”

Harrington, who is competing in this week’s Deutsche Bank championship in Boston, the second of the four FedEx Cup series which concludes with the Tour Championship in the week preceding the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor, admitted he was put in an “awkward” situation when informed – by his wife, Caroline, on the sixth hole of the final round of The Barclays – that he had made the team and that Casey had been omitted by Montgomerie.

“My own head was swimming a bit. I did genuinely feel sorry for Paul. But once you’re not on the team automatically, you do leave yourself up to this. It’s not a nice place to be, I can tell you that,” said Harrington, who will be making his sixth Ryder Cup appearance in Wales but the first – since making his debut in 1999 – as the recipient of a wild card pick.

As far as Montgomerie’s decision to omit a player ranked inside the world’s top 10 – Casey – and another who had won twice on the US Tour this season – Rose – went, Harrington was understanding of his captain’s plight.

He explained: “It was never going to be easy on Monty. He had a very tough decision. Other years, these picks have been used to pick out-of-form players who are stalwarts of the tour.

“The likes of Robert Karlsson would have been a shoo-in, (a) good player who got injured last year. A lot of good players were in contention and somebody was going to be left out.

“You can go to the ends of the earth to try and say that one player is going to be of any benefit to the team more than another player. There’s pros and cons to both sides and it can only be marginal. Edoardo (Molinari) forced himself in there and, between the four of us, it could only be a marginal pick over anybody else. There was all good qualities there, and it’s tough on the two boys (Paul Casey and Justin Rose),” said Harrington.

Casey, for his part, said that it was up to the committee and the European Tour to decide if there should be any changes to the qualifying system.

Of more immediate concern to Harrington is that he must make upward movement in the FedEx Cup rankings if he is to ensure that his pre-Ryder Cup itinerary includes the Tour Championship in Atlanta, as fields over the next two weeks – for this week’s Deutsche Bank (100) and next week’s BMW Championship in Chicago (70) – are reduced to leave just 30 players qualifying for the play-off finale.

As things stand, Harrington is placed 57th on the FedEx Cup standings and is safe for the next two events but will need to make some gain on those ahead if he is to make it to Atlanta. As he admitted, “it’s all about trying to win one of these first three events and that will put you in position where you’re in with a great chance going into (the Tour Championship) East Lake.”

Harrington’s problem is that winning has proven to be an elusive part of his game in the past two years, dating back to the 2008 US PGA win. Maybe that Ryder Cup confidence boost from Montogmerie will act as an added spur heading into the business end of the FedEx Cup.

Rory McIlroy, who is also in the fields for the Deutsche Bank and the BMW, also needs to kick on if he is to secure a place in the Tour Championship. McIlroy fell from 21st to 28th in the FedEx Cup standings after the Barclays.