RYDER CUP: Three years ago, as a rookie in Brookline, Padraig Harrington held his nerve to win his debut singles in the Ryder Cup. Yesterday, he did it again, and this time, accompanied by victory for his team, it tasted even sweeter. Philip Reid reports

Padraig Harrington loves to duel, to go head-to-head in combat. Three years ago, in Brookline, as a rookie, he held his nerve while others all around were losing theirs to win his debut singles in the Ryder Cup. But the personal satisfaction of winning that day was nothing; the team lost.

This time round, Harrington - and the team - were to enjoy the sweet taste that only winning at the highest level in your chosen discipline can bring.

After a frustrating first day on Friday, in which he lost in both fourballs and foursomes, the world number nine used Saturday's fourballs - a win in partnership with Colin Montgomerie - to revitalise. Yesterday, on the sort of day that English weathermen term "milky sunshine", Harrington produced some of the day's best golf to maintain his 100 per cent singles record in the Ryder Cup, recording a 5 and 4 win over Mark Calcavecchia.

To deafening roars, Harrington set off down the first fairway. But a missed short putt for birdie on the first, and another on the second had those watching with heavy hearts. The player himself, however, didn't take too much notice of them.

"Did it worry you, Padraig? Those two missed putts?" "You know, no. I had prepared myself very much for this match. I wasn't in the best of form striking the ball and I knew I had to be prepared to win it ugly, let's say. I knew things wouldn't go my way all day. I wasn't happy about missing the putts, but I wasn't taken aback by them. There wasn't anything of any great significance to the putts. I knew I would do some good things during the round and it was just a matter of getting through any of the bad spells," said Harrington.

It didn't take long for the good spells to arrive. He holed from four feet on the third for a par, sufficient to go one up. And even when he put his tee shot into the water on the eighth, he was able to salvage a bogey that was sufficient to halve the hole. On the ninth, he raced in a 40-footer that would have ended up off the green if it hadn't hit the back of the hole.

Up to that point, Harrington had enjoyed a massive gallery, many of them Irish. In Brookline, his match had gathered more and more people over the back nine as it increased in significance. Here, they started to move away to other matches. "It was great for me, knowing they felt I had the job done and, I suppose, I had. It was nice. At 10, 11, 12, 13 I was just rolling the putts up, to get down in two, not to make any mistakes." He didn't. When he came to the 14th, he asked his caddie Dave McNeilly for a five iron and he hit it pure. "Probably the best shot I hit all day," he remarked.

The ball landed seven feet from the hole. The caution disappeared, and it was a putt he was never going to leave short. "I was so intense on holing that. You don't often get the chance to hole a glory putt. I was delighted to hole that," he said. It was a glory putt that ended the match, giving him a 5 and 4 win.

"Padraig was pretty much in control the whole way. I got going playing the wrong way, and he was solid. He was four-under, and I was one-over, and that pretty much says it all," remarked Calcavecchia.

After that, it was a case of racing off to watch other matches. Darren Clarke's. Phillip Price's. Paul McGinley's. He was at greenside to see McGinley hole the putt that gave Europe the Ryder Cup.

"When Paul had that putt, it was crucial. There was a danger that the momentum might swing to the Americans after Paul Azinger holed that bunker shot, but Lee Westwood said to me: 'Isn't it always the Irish that hole the winning putt?' and that cheered us up no end. When he did hole it, it was just unbelievable. It was such a good putt, perfect."

Harrington has won as an individual on numerous occasions, but it is the team victories that really excite him.

"When you win a tournament on a team, backing up your teammates and them backing you up in a given week, there is nothing to compare. You get on to such a high, it is fantastic.

"The only thing I will say about the team, that possibly people don't perceive, is that normally teams rely a lot on their top guys, but this week there was tremendous confidence in the rookies. We were sure they would get the points if needed.

"We knew we had guys at the end that were going to be able to handle the pressure and play golf in that situation. It was such a well-balanced team. That's why guys could be rested over the first two days, and that made such a difference."