Padraig Harrington showed his determination to join Darren Clarke in the 1997 European Ryder Cup team with an admirable 66 in the storm-delayed first round of the Scandinavian Masters at Barseback, near Malmo, yesterday.
It gave the 25-year-old Dubliner a share of second place with Jose Rivero, one shot behind Italian Costantino Rocca whose 65 equalled the course record, and was a timely return to form after a month in which he has struggled to combat shoulder and rib injuries.
The Italian, a member of the victorious 1995 team at Oak Hill, hurt his right shoulder in Hamburg in June, then damaged a rib cartilage while hitting from thick rough during the Irish Open at Druid's Glen. Yesterday he was able to remove the protective strapping around his body and swung much more freely to give an impressive exhibition of accurate hitting on the 7,301 yards seaside course. Seven birdies signalled his resolve not to be dislodged from his ninth place in the Ryder Cup qualifying table.
Harrington started this week in 11th place, only 3,819 points behind Jose Maria Olazabal, the former US Masters champion, on whose shoulders so much depends in the next four weeks. If Olazabal becomes one of the 10 automatic qualifiers when the programme ends at the Munich Open, skipper Seve Ballesteros will be free to hand his two wild cards to American-based Nick Faldo, and Sweden's Jesper Parnevik, who won this title on this course two years ago, and after his joint second place with Darren Clarke in the Open, is among the favourites for the £125,000 top prize.
Harrington knows he will have to play himself into the side, but it is a challenge he will relish. "Until I was fifth in the Open I did not have a chance of being in the Ryder Cup, but now I am within shooting distance, and I might as well go shooting," he said.
As the Tour's top marksman this season - he has 281 birdies after the six more he collected yesterday - he ranks alongside England's Lee Westwood and the injured Thomas Bjorn as the best of the young European players. And despite being only a secondyear professional, he is rich in matchplay experience, having taken part in three Walker Cups. If Harrington does earn a place at Valderrama it will be his putter which will get him there.
His longest putt was from 50 feet at the 17th, while three other birdies came from around 15 feet to leave playing partner Clarke shaking his head. He was marginally more impressive from the tee, apart from his five-iron at the short fourth which he pulled wide of the target. He finished with a 69. Apart from Ronan Rafferty (70), who partnered favourite Colin Montgomerie as golf went on late into the evening, the other Irish players were delayed by a heavy thunderstorm. The course stood up well to the deluge, but the greens remained sluggish. David Higgins, though dropping three shots in five holes around the turn, birdied two of the last three for a 70. Des Smyth went out in 34 with three birdies in his 71. Des Smyth and Paul McGinley also carded 71, Raymond Burns had a 72 while Philip Walton was two strokes further back.
Ken Schofield, executive director of the PGA European Tour, has given guarded approval to a new Ryder Cup system which would come into operation following this year's match at Valderrama in September.Schofield still wants 10 Europeans to qualify for future teams with two wild cards selected by the captain. But he believes that the world rankings, now endorsed by all the major Tours and by the R and A and the USPGA, should be involved in any future selection systems."I still think that 10 players should qualify," said Schofield. "But I would like to see a combination of the world rankings and the Volvo rankings to decide future teams. It would be the best of both worlds."Only this week Colin Montgomerie made the point that now the world rankings had been endorsed, the top 12 Europeans form those rankings should be selected for Ryder Cup matches.What Schofield did not say yesterday was what number of players should be selected from the world rankings and what number from the current system of collecting Cup points from European Tour events.But he has instructed Bill Hodge, the European Tour's chief statistician, to make a survey of all the Ryder Cup teams since 1987 and compare the world rankings with the teams that were selected.
