Valhalla Blog: The American commentators are obsessed with statistics. It permeates all their sporting analysis from gridiron, through baseball, basketball and golf. What's been apparent all week long in newspapers and on television is that they don't interpret statistics by providing some meat to go on the bones of figures.

Take Padraig Harrington for example. To a man the Americans have written and spoken about how the three-time major winner has struggled in the last two Ryder Cups and on face value a record of no wins, six defeats and two halved matches would lend credence to that stance.

However, if you delve beneath the bottom line, figures wise, and analyse his fortunes this week it offers a slightly different perspective on his contribution. In Friday's foursomes it was his nerveless putting on the back nine that earned half a point at a time when his playing partner Robert Karlsson was struggling with his game.

That afternoon, Harrington and Graeme McDowell, ran in to a Phil Mickelson/Anthony Kim combination that produced 10 birdies in 17 holes and the concession of another on the home green. The Irish pair were eight under - eight birdies and no dropped shots - so it's not as if they were swinging the lead.

Possibly only in Saturday's morning foursomes - again in partnership with Karlsson - would Harrington have any regrets about his performance. He's been the first to say all week that he's had a problem with his alignment and is not hitting the ball as well as he
would wish but, the swing mechanics hasn't subsumed his fighting qualities.

Time and again in all three matches he has holed clutch putts, showing his traditional mental resilience and competitive instincts, all for a meagre return of half a point. Sport is not entirely about talent or quality. You also need luck. Statistics don't factor in the peripherals. It's just a bank statement with a bottom line. And it's lazy journalism. Harrington's contribution so far this week at Valhalla is much more than half a point.