Padraig Harrington had a little family get-together when he finished his practice round here yesterday. His cousin, Joey Harrington, who is the star quarter-back with the Detroit Lions, walked four fairways with Europe's top-ranked player although informing him that he'll actually be rooting for the US team.

However, the footballing Harrington won't make it to Oakland Hills for the actual match as he is involved in an NFL game over the weekend.

"It was good to catch up with him," remarked Padraig.

"It's hard to meet up when we have such busy schedules but there'll be a time in the future where we are going to meet up when we're not actually competing or performing in that week."

As for the golfer, things are all sweetness and light after his win in the German Masters brought an end to his nine-month drought since his last win on tour.

For Harrington, it was particularly satisfying as it also gave his caddie Ronan Flood a first win on the bag.

"When I parted company with Dave (McNeilly) it got a lot of attention, a lot of undue attention that it had not been done in the right way whereas, in actual fact, I gave him plenty of notice and my new caddie came in for a lot of stick, even though I pointed out Ronan was there temporarily until I found the caddie that I wanted. I wasn't going to poach another caddie off anybody else.

"It put him under a lot of pressure and it put me under a lot of pressure throughout the summer.

"We were definitely trying too hard at times because of that . . . so, it was nice to win. He did a tremendous job on Sunday. It was like having Bob Rotella (sports psychologist) on the bag all day, he kept coming up to me and saying all the right things.

"I always had faith and trust in him, but it was hard. It's amazing how when you lose any sort of form, everybody scrapes to look for anything to blame but the player himself. So to win was very pleasing for both of us."