A Top-10 finish would probably do it. From an increased prize fund of $2.6 million at Winged Foot, such a performance would earn Padraig Harrington a minimum of $65,000 or about 40,000 Ryder Cup points.

That would lift the Dubliner to roughly 330,000 points and above Thomas Bjorn into eighth position in the table, with two events remaining - assuming, of course, that none of the other Ryder Cup fringe challengers matches Harrington's performance. But it remains an inviting prospect.

There are 15 Europeans in the USPGA field - Nick Faldo, Jesper Parnevik, Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, Sam Torrance, Darren Clarke, Harrington, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Bjorn, Per-Ulrik Johansson, Lee Westwood, Ian Woosnam, Ignacio Garrido, Costantino Rocca and Paul Broadhurst.

Of the top 12 in the table, all are competing with the exception of Miguel-Angel Martin (ninth) who is recovering from a hand operation. And from this event alone, Torrance (17th), Broadhurst (13th) and Olazabal (12th) could move ahead of Harrington who currently holds down 11th position.

Typically, the Dubliner was not prepared to consider any movements in the table, either in a positive or negative sense. "My objective this week is simply to play well and, to be honest, I'm concerned about my game," he said. "I'm struggling a bit."

Further experience of the course, however, has made him more optimistic than when he first caught sight of it. "I would consider it to be a lot more playable than Congressional," he said, reflecting on a missed cut in the US Open. "If I get my driving sorted out, I could do pretty well here."

The fact is that apart from such leading campaigners as Faldo, Langer, Woosnam, Montgomerie and Olazabal, rank and file European players have performed admirably in this championship in recent years. This could be attributed to the fact that the courses, though undoubtedly difficult, are generally set up in a far less penal manner than for the US Open.

So, in-form players must have excellent chances of coming away with serious money on Sunday evening. For instance, David Feherty collected $38,000 for a share of seventh place behind John Daly at Crooked Stick in 1991 and Miguel-Angel Jimenez earned $33,750 for a share of 13th place behind Steve Elkington at Riviera in 1995.

Then there was the splendid showing by Swedish challengers at Valhalla 12 months ago. After an opening 73, Parnevik fought back to eventually claim $86,666 for a share of fifth place behind Mark Brooks and another Swede, Johansson, earned $57,500 for a share of eighth place.

In the meantime, Faldo was tied second (1992), third (1993) and tied fourth (1994); in 1994, Olazabal was tied seventh and Woosnam was tied ninth and two years ago, Montgomerie lost a play-off to Elkington at Riviera. Indeed it is worth noting that the $175,000 third-place money here, would actually move Faldo (22nd) ahead of Harrington in the points table.

Clearly, the rewards are there. Despite such considerations, Harrington's first objective is to make the cut. After that, however, Ryder Cup points become a priority, which means that he must reject any notions of conservatism while challenging aggressively for a high finish.

A reward of $10,000 may appear to be quite useful payment for 38th position on Sunday, but even if his fellow Ryder Cup aspirants collected nothing, it wouldn't lift Harrington out of 11th place.

Finally, there is the question of Bjorn's fitness. Following last month's British Open, the 26-year-old Dane sustained an injured left ankle while jogging. In fact he has not played competitively since missing the cut at Troon and his first 18 holes were in practice here on Tuesday.

"I have the ankle heavily strapped and I applied ice to it afterwards," he said. "I plan to play the remaining two qualifying tournaments in Europe, but I've been told that the strapping will have to remain on for about six weeks."

All of which must help Harrington's cause, even if his sporting instincts would deflect him from thinking that way.