‘It puts me in an awkward position so I’d prefer clarity’
PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON denies he’s in a one-horse race for the 2020 Ryder Cup captaincy and insists he’d prefer to know his fate sooner rather than later.
The Dubliner (47) admitted yesterday he was sounded out by the European Tour about his desire to skipper the side at Whistling Straits “almost immediately after” Europe’s win in Paris.
And while he knows there are “two names in the hat” with his own – Paul Lawrie and Robert Karlsson are believed to be interested – and denies that the presence of fellow Irishmen Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke alongside Thomas Bjorn on the fiveman selection committee makes him a shoo-in for the job.
“I would hoping they will make their decision without bias,” Harrington said ahead of the $7 million Turkish Airlines Open at the Regnum Carya
Golf & Spa Resort.
“It’s interesting getting asked questions about it when I know no more than anybody else. There’s not much I can say, bar, yes, I’d like to be Ryder Cup captain, my name’s in the hat and there are other names in the hat and nobody is fully sure when they are going to announce it.”
While Bjorn was named as captain nearly 22 months before the Ryder Cup and felt that the lead-in was too long, Harrington would relish a pre-Christmas announcement even if the successful candidate faces a huge task on US soil.
“I know what he’s saying, but I keep getting asked,” Harrington said. “We’ve had, what, 20 minutes on this and I’m trying to say I’m not the Ryder Cup captain for 2020, it has not been decided. But once you start talking about it, eventually it starts looking like, I think I am. It puts me in an awkward position. I’d prefer the clarity.”
Tempestuous as a player, Bjorn surprised some with his even-tempered captaincy and anyone expecting Harrington to try some of his more eccentric practice methods if he’s captain in Wisconsin will be sorely disappointed.
“I think I would be myself,” he said. “Maybe sometimes I might be pigeonholed into being a certain self that I’m not, so if you do see something different, it’s just you didn’t know me in the first place. There’s an edge of me that would be more towards the Bernhard Langer type obviously, and it would be interesting to see, would I be a little bit more controlling.”
He has no plans to reinvent the wheel, even if Wisconsin native Steve Stricker – the likely US captain – would present formidable opposition on a course that could favour the Europeans.
“I would definitely go for continuity,” he said. “If I was captain, I wouldn’t be going out there to do anything new, no.”
Links-like Whistling Straits is not the kind of venue that US can easily trick up to suit bombers and Harrington believes some US players are less than thrilled about the Lake Michigan setting
“They know that they have had a better chance of winning the Ryder Cup if they went back to a Hazeltine-style of golf course, rather than going to a links course in the States,” he said.
As for the Turkish Airlines Open, where he’s joined by Shane Lowry and Paul Dunne, Harrington needs a good week as he’s 89th in the Race to Dubai with only the top 60 qualifying for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship
“I need to putt a bit better, but I’m working on that, and putting can come and go,” said Harrington, who was fourth behind Justin Rose last year.
“It’s not like you can’t have a good week and I’m waiting for that to happen.”