Golf: Ryder Cup: Europe Fly Out on the Wings of Form

The suspicion that the European members of the Ryder Cup team are in better current form than their American counterparts hardened into a certainty over the weekend.

Padraig Harrington's win in Germany was a far better result than anything achieved in the Canadian Open by the members of the US team, the best of whom was Stewart Cink, who finished joint-fourth with Justin Rose.

While too much cannot be read into strokeplay results when considering a matchplay event, it is nevertheless helpful to have the confidence good results bring and the Europeans in the last two tournaments - in Crans-sur-Sierre and Cologne - have performed encouragingly.

The European captain, Bernhard Langer, said yesterday: "It's great that all the guys seem to be playing fairly well. We've had some good results and some very good results and that's the best thing we can have."

Perhaps not surprisingly, Harrington agreed.

"This is exactly what we want," he said, "players coming into form. But this is a team effort and I think this will be the first Ryder Cup where it is more 12 versus 12. Before, Europe has relied on a core of major championship winners and sometimes it seemed like it was six versus 12. This team, though, is really balanced."

He went on: "I think the US are favourites because they always are. They are ranked higher in the world than we are and that's the only judgment you can use."

Harrington, by his win, consolidated eighth place in the world rankings, with Tiger Woods (second), Phil Mickelson (fourth) and Davis Love III (sixth) ahead of him. But the rankings, while the best thing available, deal in fractions of points and tend to distort the picture when it comes to the Ryder Cup. A player can be 10 places ahead of another in the rankings but there might only be, say, .05 of a point between them. That is not only statistically insignificant, in Ryder Cup matchplay terms it can be positively misleading.

As Harrington pointed out, when talking about the demands on a player in the match, the Ryder Cup produces stresses and strains that are totally out of the ordinary.

Asked if he would mind being asked to hit the first tee shot, the Irishman said: "It would be a distinction, an honour - but I'd rather it was one my partner could have." Harrington, in fact, would rather have the last putt. "I'd rather have the last shot," he said, "and if it had the potential to be the winning shot that would please me even more."

"The Irish," he went on, "have done well in the Ryder Cup and a lot of them have holed winning putts; there was Darce [Eamonn Darcy] in 1987, there was Philip [Walton] in 1995 and, of course, Paul [McGinley] last time."

There was also Christy O'Connor at The Belfry in 1989 when he hit one of the great two-irons at the last, a blow that finished so close he did not have to putt it to beat Fred Couples.

"I think that any European would be thrilled to have the chance to try and hole the putt that Bernhard missed at Kiawah." added Harrington. "But the truth is I'd be happy to lose all five of my matches so long as it meant that we returned to Europe with the Ryder Cup."

With victory achieved, the one outstanding issue was Harrington's shoulder, which had troubled him on Friday in Cologne. There was good news on that front, too. He had treatment over the weekend but said after his three-shot success: "It was perfect. I just overdid it."

He practised for four hours on Friday and hopefully will have learnt the lesson at last that the moment he feels anything he should stop. Incredibly, the 33-year-old had laser eye surgery on his left eye just nine days ago but expects his workload will not be unreasonable this week.

In talking about five matches Harrington, who only played in four at The Belfry in 2002, feels that the latter is the right number. "I'm hoping that in a 12-man team effort the ideal situation will arise and we'll only have to play four."

Langer, happily for Harrington, is also a supporter of this view. "I think it is very hard to play four times before the singles. I told Sam [Torrance, the 2002 captain] last time that I didn't want to do that. I asked him for a rest so that I would be fully recuperated and could concentrate on the singles and I think that was the right decision."

Langer, of course, thrashed his opposite number this week, Hal Sutton, 5 and 4 in that final series. "I'm not one," said Langer, "who likes to play 36 holes in a day, although I'm fit enough to do so. But it means 10 hours on the course and, with the practising, it is 13 hours of total stress."