Harrington for the Ryder Cup in Paris?

HE’S not teed it up for Europe since 2010 at Celtic Manor but Padraig Harrington is making a bold bid to make the team for Paris in 2018 at the grand old age of 47.

His performance at the Turkish Airlines Open over the weekend was vintage Harrington and his fourth-place finish has propelled him up to 18th in the standings but he needs a further climb if he is to be on the plane to Paris next September.

Vice-Captain in 2014 and again in 2016, Harrington has made no secret of the fact that he wants one more shot at taking on the Americans and his experience would be invaluable to younger players on the team in foursomes or fourball matches. However, there’s a long way to go yet before they start fitting him for the blazer and let’s not get carried away. Paul Dunne is a much more realistic prospect of having Irish representation on the team as he currently sits in fifth place.

There is of course a change to the selection process for next year’s event which is a little more complicated than the system used up to 2016, so the 12man team for Le Golf National in Paris will be made up of the top four players from the European points list, the top four players from the World point list and Captain Thomas Bjorn will have four wildcard selections instead of the previous three.

If Harrington does make the team for September, he wont be the oldest European player to take part in the event however. That record is held by Ted Ray who played in the very first Ryder Cup in 1927 at the age of 50 while Ireland’s Christy O’Connor Senior was the next oldest at 48 playing in the 1973 matches.

On the American side Ray Floyd was 51 when he played in the 1993 match with Jay Haas the next oldest at 50 in 2004.