GOLF Ryder Cup 2004: Unless you've been through it all, it's impossible to truly understand. Unless you've experienced the roller-coaster ride of emotions; unless you've endured the physical and mental demands of qualifying for the Ryder Cup, when each shot is worth thousands of points and a missed putt can be fatal, and unless you've been in that same position, it's hard to really, really comprehend the pressure involved.

As someone who has been there and done that, Padraig Harrington fully appreciates what qualities Paul McGinley demonstrated in finally booking his ticket to Detroit next month.

"It's unbelievable, to be honest," remarked Harrington of his fellow Dubliner's feat in securing back-to-back places on Europe's team for the defence of a trophy that was secured two years ago at The Belfry with arguably the purest putt of McGinley's professional career.

Nobody on the PGA European Tour knows McGinley as well as Harrington. On Saturday morning last in Munich, the two met for breakfast and the discussion came around to how Harrington, back in 1999, had achieved his objective of claiming his Ryder Cup place by finishing second in the BMW. Anything less would have been insufficient. "It's interesting that it effectively came down to the same thing for Paul this time," observed Harrington.

Yet, Harrington's admiration for what McGinley achieved is not just about what he did last weekend in Munich, it's to do with what he has done all summer long. In chasing a place on the team, McGinley - who underwent knee surgery in the spring - played week in, week out for 10 straight weeks.

"Six weeks ago," claimed Harrington, "the odds were very much against Paul making the team, particularly as he was carrying that injury. He's been under constant pressure and you've just got to hand it to him for what he has achieved."

In fact, at the start of that manic 10-week stretch, McGinley had slipped to as low as 17th place in the European points table but a series of consistent finishes, (without the really big pay-day of a win), including five top-10 finishes in his last nine outings, took him up to eighth place in the European points list on Sunday evening, giving him the ninth automatic place just ahead of Ian Poulter.

Harrington, for one, doesn't need any convincing of the qualities McGinley will bring to the European team for the match at Oakland Hills in a little over a fortnight's time.

"Paul's one of those guys who is most solid," said Harrington yesterday. "You can depend on him quite a lot. He brings the same level of game with him every week. I think we have a very good team, particularly so because of the way that players battling for those final places played so well in the recent tournaments."

At Kiawah Island in 1997 the duo teamed-up to win the World Cup for Ireland and, at The Belfry two years ago, they played one foursomes match together (losing to Jim Furyk and Stewart Cink). This time round, there's a widely held view that Harrington, in his third Ryder Cup and who qualified as number one from the world points list, and McGinley, due to play his first match in America, could be an integral pairing.

Now that the 12-man team has been finalised - and Sweden's Freddie Jacobsen can feel hard done by in not making the team or getting one of captain Bernhard Langer's wild cards, which went to Colin Montgomerie and Luke Donald, despite finishing marginally outside the automatic top-five from the world points list in sixth place and also finished just one place outside an automatic place from the European points list - players must regroup and refocus.

Harrington is one of them. Yesterday, he was working on his game at Largs in Scotland with his coach Bob Torrance after missing the cut in Munich, and the Dubliner intends to compete in the German Masters in Cologne next week before heading out with the team to Oakland Hills for the match on September 17th-19th.

"I was more disappointed not to play well rather than about missing the cut (in Munich). I'd 33 putts in the second round, but that's part of the highs and lows of the game," said Harrington.

"It would be nice to have a good week in Cologne before heading over to America."

For anyone who successfully completed the qualifying process for the Ryder Cup, it was a draining process and, not surprisingly, this week's Omega European Masters in Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland is a tournament that suffers as a consequence although Ernie Els, a player for whom the Ryder Cup is something to be watched on television, will head the entry list.

There are four Irish players in the field - Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane - and this tournament effectively starts a run-in to the end of the season that brings with it renewed targets to be met as all have guaranteed their tour cards for next season.

For McDowell, who came so close to making the Ryder Cup team, his objective is to win a place in the top 15 on the European Tour money list (he is currently 16th) which would ensure him a place in all four of next year's majors.

For either Lawrie or Murphy to aim for such lofty heights would require a sizeable tournament win over the next couple of months but, like McGrane, they have it in their own hands to qualify for the season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama. To do so, they would need to move into the top-60 on the money list.

EUROPEAN ORDER OF MERIT - Irish positions: 6, D Clarke 1,185,976; 8, P Harrington 988,804; 13, P McGinley 888,586; 16, G McDowell €864,162; 80, P Lawrie 207,558; 81, G Murphy 207,501; 91, D McGrane €183,808; 213, D Higgins 20,582.