After back-to-back victories by Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia, the Ryder Cup qualification ball is now squarely at the feet of triple Major  winning Padraig Harrington.

McIlroy delivered European Team captain, Jose Maria Olazabal and huge confidence boost in capturing a second Major success with victory in the 94th PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.

Olazabal was then given a second successive Medinah lift when Garcia ended a four-year PGA Tour winless drought to capture the Wyndham Championship at Greensboro, North Carolina.

Garcia had been lying 11th on the European Team qualifying points table and has not shot to sixth place bumping England’s Ian Poulter back to 11th and just eight days after moving inside the automatic qualifiers.

Olazabal was on the Gleneagles range when Garcia finally posted a last round 66 to win to two strokes with an 18-under par tally.

“It’s great news and that’s one less person to worry about,” said Olazabal.

Olazabal spoke in glowing terms ahead of the recent PGA Championship of the worth of having Garcia in the team saying:  “Well, you’ve seen him play a Ryder Cup.  He’s a great team player,” said Olazabal of Garcia.

“His spirit is always really good.  And in that regard, I think he’s a great asset to the team.  He has the experience, the knowledge.  He wants to be part of it.

“Pairing-wise, he’s proved the last few Ryder Cups he can play with anybody, and he’s done well.”

After missing the cut in the PGA Championship, Olazabal headed to Chicago and the Medinah course where he spent three days getting familiar with the venue for the September 28th commencing showdown.

“The course is excellent condition overall,” said Olazabal.

“There’s not much rough and that will allow the guys to play golf.  The tees are in great shape while the greens are also good shape.

“The only real work that needs to be done is on the fairways and the greens staff at Medinah are working hard now that the temperatures are cooling down a bit.”

It’s now left to Olazabal to choose his two ‘wildcard’ picks with Poulter, should he not break back into the top-10, a certainty to get one pick and other likely to be handed to Belguim’s big-hitting Nicolas Colsearts who finished in a share of seventh place with a similar last day 66 as Garcia.

Harrington, who has contested the past six Ryder Cups, now needs to follow the winning ways of McIlroy and Garcia if he is to have any chance of earning the last ‘wildcard’ pick.