Watching the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ has inspired Padraig Harrington to qualify automatically for the 2014 European Ryder Cup team.
The triple Major winner had long been out in the cold and very much Europe’s forgotten man in the countdown to 2012 selection.
However Harrington graciously accepted his plight but then on Sunday night he joined golf fans around the globe transfixed by TV coverage of a Jose Maria Olazabal inspired European Team comeback in Chicago.
Padraig Harrington in jovial mood at the 2010 Ryder Cup but now inspired to qualify automatically for the 2014 Ryder Cup after watching the ‘Miracle at Medinah’.
“It was phenomenal to watch and such an amazing turnaround and all congratulations to the European Team,” said Harrington on RTE radio.
“It was just so exciting watching the Ryder Cup and personally I am hoping I can take something from it.
“Of course, I am very keen to qualify for 2014 but then I was keen before the team won to also to qualify for Medinah.
“Watching Europe win just inspires you.
“I know when I played in the ’99 Team it was tough when we lost in Brookline but the atmosphere was difficult between the teams.
“But over the years, and with so many Europeans now playing in America, a lot of the US guys are now our friends, so there is not so much of an atmosphere between the two teams.”
Harrington was also full of praise for Jose Maria Olazabal and, with the approval of rival Captain Davis Love 111, being able to draw on the memory of Seve Ballesteros with motifs of the late, great Spaniard on their clothing.
“In any Ryder Cup you have to play every card you have and no doubt they played the Seve card superbly,” said Harrington.
“It meant a huge amount to Seve having Olazabal as the captain, and being so close to Seve, the team was always going to use that for momentum.
“So it certainly seemed to work. It’s a tough one to say tangibly how well it worked but certainly the passion was there on the Sunday and you have to put some of that down to Seve’s legacy.”
And Harrington, like everyone, was still in shock World No. 1 Rory McIlroy went within a whisker of seeing himself disqualified after being left stuck at the team hotel and needing a police escort to get to the course.
“For Rory to be late was just phenomenal,” said Harrington.
“But then the thing is outside of the Ryder Cup we are self-managed every week and if I want to go and practice for four hours in the evening then I will do what I want to do in that in the week of a tournament.
“The Ryder Cup is just so unusual, as everything is pre-organised.
“On the Monday when you a given a dossier listing everything you have to do from what to wear, where to eat, what time are the interviews and so on.
“It happened at the BMW tournament in Cologne this year where there was a big traffic jam and players had to jump out of cars and run through fields to make their tee times.
“Personally, I am up three-and-a-half hours before my tee time as I am not 23 years of age, as I now need more time to ready myself.
“But Rory is like the Rolls Royce of golf as he can stand there on the range and pretty much take a few swings and off he goes.
“I need to do my warm-up exercises and go to the range for an hour and 10 minutes.
“So it’s phenomenal to see what Rory had to go through to get to the course and fair play to him, and I am a little bit jealous that he’s just 23 years of age and being able to do that.”
Harrington returns to competition for Thursday’s starting $US 5m Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland and an event he won in both 2002 and 2006.
