Ryder Cup Digest: The goldfish bowl surroundings, every smile or grimace scrutinised by spectators and media alike, and the monotony and repetition of the questioning hasn't suppressed Padraig Harrington's sense of humour.
After playing alongside Paul McGinley against the Swedish duo of Niclas Fasth and Jesper Parnevik in foursomes over the front nine and fourballs for the back side, Harrington was asked if they had played for financial gain.
He confirmed that money did change hands but just wasn't sure how many bets Parnevik had concocted.
"We actually had a great match, very exciting. If you play with Jesper there are so many bets going on that you're not quite sure how much money you should be looking for in the end. We won. We won enough to win one match, one unit."
So how much money? "You couldn't speak of money, that wouldn't be proper."
In the course of the press conference, Harrington revealed that on the final day in Brookline three years ago, he experienced the high and low points of his golfing career. It came immediately after his match against Mark O'Meara was over. "I was on the greatest high, certainly of my golfing life, when I won that match against Mark. All the emotions came right at that moment, because obviously I hadn't allowed myself to think about winning. Within five minutes I ran down the 18th fairway. I probably didn't run, I glided down the fairway to the 17th and sat down.
"Within 30 seconds of sitting down Justin Leonard holed that putt and it was taken away: I went from the biggest high to the biggest low of my golfing career." ...
- John O'Sullivan
Sergio Garcia was in tears yesterday - mock tears, that is.
At the end of the European team's second practice round for the Ryder Cup at The Belfry, captain Sam Torrance received such a cheer on the 18th green that he re-enacted his "V for Victory" raising of his arms after he holed the winning putt on the course in 1985.
Garcia was nearby and then mimicked Torrance, not just with the arms, but also with all the tears that flowed from the Scot's eyes that never-to-be-forgotten day.
The 22-year-old Spaniard even lifted his jumper to his face to wipe all the pretend tears away. The crowd loved it and so did the other watching European players.
A comparisonof the performance of the Ryder Cup teams certainly favours the United States. Based on data collected this season, Curtis Strange's side hold the upper hand in the majority of all the major categories.
The US team are more accurate, hitting 68.3 per cent of fairways compared to 64.5 per cent for the European team, and the holders also have a better scoring average - 70.74 to 71.08 - a fact explained by their average of 28.9 putts per round compared to 29.3.
When it comes to length off the tee, the Europeans are marginally ahead with 281.5 yards to 281.2, although Strange's side possess the longest average driver in Tiger Woods (294.4).
But the European players still manage to find more greens in regulation - 68.61 to 67.1 per cent - and also escape from bunkers with par 54.6 per cent of the time, compared to 52.7 per cent.
An Irish company, 3D Eagleview International, has teamed up with the Ryder Cup organisers to supply three-dimensional helicopter footage of the event to television viewers across the world.
The Limerick-based company's process will allow viewers to enjoy cutting edge fly-throughs of The Belfry using an innovative process which allows three-dimensional computer graphics to be inserted into digital video footage. Distance markers are also accurately placed into the video footage to allow commentators explain the strategy and the clubs used by the competitors.
