One of the quirks of this season is that Padraig Harrington has ridden the crest of a wave, all the way to the top of Europe's Ryder Cup table, but has failed to actually win a tournament on the European Tour.
His latest runners-up position, in the Irish Open, was the 13th of his near six-year-old professional career and was the fourth second place finish that he has accomplished so far this year. Yet, just like in Dubai back in March, this latest occasion in which he finished second best was one where he effectively backed into the position.
And Harrington is not concerned with the string of second placed finishes, insisting that patience will reap dividends and that the time to claim his fourth career win will come. "Fota was another time when I have run into second place. The fact is that you are going to have second place finishes where you are not really in contention, and this was one of them, and there are other occasions when you are going to come second when you probably should have won the tournament. All I can do is focus on my own game," he insisted.
Harrington's performance in Cork lifted him to the top of the Ryder Cup table, ahead of Sweden's Pierre Fulke - who missed the Irish Open and will also be an absentee from this week's European Open - while Darren Clarke moved up to third place in the table and became the fourth player to break the one million points mark.
For the two Irishmen - who finished in a three-way tie for second with Sweden's Niclas Fasth - their performances over the weekend will provide a boost going into the European Open.
While Harrington and Clarke could express a degree of satisfaction with their games - even if Clarke showed that professional golfers are never truly happy when claiming that his 64 could "comfortably" have been four shots better - there was no such solace for Paul McGinley, who was one of the big losers in terms of strengthening his Ryder Cup prospects.
McGinley dropped down to 11th in the qualifying table and, although he has secured an invite to compete in the US PGA championship in Atlanta next month, he needs to perform well over the coming weeks as the top 12 in the week prior to the NEC in Akron (which could be make-or-break week because of the $4 million purse and a confined field) get into that particular tournament.
While McGinley felt that some of his problems were possibly caused by having a three-week break before Fota, and consequently not being as sharp as he would like, evidence for his game's problems can be discerned from the statistics for his final round on Sunday when he found only 10 greens in regulation. Also, despite single putting the first four greens, he still accumulated 30 putts.
"I want to wipe what happened at Fota out of my memory and get on with this week. I will be working very hard between now and Thursday. The bottom line is that you have to play good and I am struggling. I have work to do, but my game it will come back," said McGinley.
