Simon Lewis
Thomas Bjorn ranted when he was ignored as a wild card option six years and Paul Casey was almost reduced to tears. That's how much it means to be almost named to a European Ryder Cup team.
Pádraig Harrington will be just as disappointed to miss out this time around having been overlooked on Monday by Jose Maria Olazabal for next month's edition against the United States but it is a measure of the man and a vindication of his stature in the game that he took the news on the chin and wished his fellow Europeans well at Medinah Country Club near Chicago.
Bjorn had ranted when being ignored by Ian Woosnam for the K Club matches in 2006, becoming so enraged on the corresponding announcement weekend at Gleneagles that his expressions of “devastation” earned him a rebuke from the European Tour and forced him into sackcloth and ashes with a public apology the following day. Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood had earned Woosnam's selections and went on to justify them over that emotional weekend in Kildare.
Bjorn's behaviour did not prevent him from becoming a vice captain to Colin Montgomerie alongside Clarke and Paul McGinley two years ago at Celtic Manor, when Monty chose Harrington, Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari for his three wild cards at the expense, chiefly, of Casey and Justin Rose.
Montgomerie named his picks straight after the final round at Gleneagles while Casey was playing his final round at The Barclays on the PGA Tour in America with the Englishman happening to be paired with Harrington. It was inadvertently through the Irishman's wife Caroline, that Casey learned of the decision as he explained after his round as he fought back those tears of disappointment.
“I've not really officially heard and I haven't looked yet to see if I have a text or voice message, but I saw Caroline gave (Harrington's caddie) Ronan (Flood) the thumbs up on the seventh hole and then it went fairly quiet,” Casey said. “I figured that was it. Caroline's a great friend - she would have said something to me if I had been picked, so at that point I kind of knew that I hadn't.”
Like Harrington yesterday, Casey showed no ill will towards the captain for his omission and in truth there can be no reason to for if a player cannot qualify automatically for a Ryder Cup team he really has left it in the lap of the gods as to his participation.
Olazabal's decision to take Ian Poulter and Nicolas Colsaerts as his two wild cards was an easy decision for Spain's European captain to make. Harrington had a decent shout, too, but the three-time major winner had been acutely aware since Olazabal's press conference at the PGA Championship in Kiawah Island that he would not be on the plane to Chicago for the September 28-30 defence of the trophy regained by Monty's heroes at Celtic Manor.
Olazabal had cited Harrington's putting problems as his major area of concern and it was telling on Monday when extolling the strengths of both Poulter and Colsaerts that the pair's work with the flat stick had been major factors in their selections.
Referring to the Belgian's length off the tee and the asset that will bring on a beefed up Medinah course measuring 7658 yards, Olazabal said: “Length can be a factor, but obviously at the end of the day, we have all known that, you know, the most important thing is how many putts you make.”
Harrington, despite his strong showing in all four majors this year, had simply not made enough to show the captain he was worth a spot on the team.
Of that he could have no complaint.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/OYRs7Cr3ETI/post.aspx
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