Harrington predicts ‘neutral’ venues

Padraig Harrington believes a neutral figure should be put in charge of course set-up for the Ryder Cup, but concedes that is not likely to happen soon.

Three-time major winner Harrington is the odds-on favourite to succeed Thomas Bjorn as Ryder Cup captain as Europe seek to defend the trophy they won in emphatic fashion in Paris at Whistling Straits in 2020.

It promises to be a tough task as home advantage takes on increasing significance, with Europe’s win in 2012 the only success by an away side in the last seven biennial contests against the United States.

“It is called the Miracle of Medinah,” Harrington joked ahead of the Turkish Airlines Open. “It’s not impossible to win away from home, but it does give a distinct advantage to the home team.”

Asked if the set-up of Ryder Cup venues should be taken out of the hands of the home captain, Harrington added: “I think down the road, yes.

“At Hazeltine (in 2016) they just knew. They had a stats guy come in and he said we make more birdies than the Europeans, make this into a birdie-fest and we should win.

“We knew going into France, make par be very precious and Europe will have an advantage and it proved that way.

“I don’t see that changing. I might have started the conversation off, but it will take 20, 30, 40 years to move to a neutral set-up. I don’t think it’s going to happen very soon. (But) if it keeps going that we win in Europe, they win in the States...”

The good news for Harrington, if he does indeed become captain for 2020, is two-fold.

Firstly, he believes that home advantage could be partially negated by the nature of Whistling Straits, and secondly his style of captaincy is likely to resemble that of Bernhard Langer, who led Europe to a record victory at Oakland Hills in 2004.

“For whoever is captain next time, I think the American players aren’t that happy that it’s at Whistling Straits,” Harrington added.

“They know they’d have a better chance of winning the Ryder Cup if they went back to a Hazeltine-style golf course, rather than going to a links-style course in the States.

“The players are very aware they would have an advantage over the Europeans at their traditional-style golf courses.

“While they will try to set Whistling Straits up to suit them, from our side we hope they don’t have as much wiggle room as they did with the likes of Hazeltine.”