Wentworth miss costs Harrington
By Brian Keogh
Padraig Harrington's decision to avoid Wentworth's bumpy greens has cost him his Ryder Cup place.
And European Tour boss George O'Grady knows he must find an urgent solution to the greens issue or look on helplessly as his top players skip the tour's flagship event.
Miguel Angel Jimenez's play-off win relegated Harrington from fifth to seventh in the Ryder Cup World Points List and out of the automatic qualifying places.
Harrington was one of three high profile European Tour stars who gave Wentworth a miss this year with Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter also missing.
Shocked by the poor greens, tour chief O'Grady has vowed to take urgent action, promising: "We don't hide away from things that aren't perfect. There's been a lot of work put in by the Wentworth Club so it's very disappointing for them not to deliver it.
"We already have started with Wentworth to try and find out what we can do to improve it. Many people's brains are on it now.....we want results."
Harrington putted poorly in the Irish Open at Adare Manor and he will have been pleased to avoid a confidence-sapping week at Wentworth.
Now he must get his putter working at Celtic Manor this week where he joins Peter Lawrie, Paul McGinley, Damien McGrane, Darren Clarke, Gary Murphy, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy for the first event on the 2010 Ryder Cup venue.
Latest leading places in the European Ryder Cup tables after the BMW PGA Championship and Crowne Plaza International (top five on world list on August 31 qualify, plus next five on European list. Captain Nick Faldo then adds two wild cards):
(Capitals indicate players currently in qualifying positions)
WORLD LIST
1 LEE WESTWOOD 176.12, 2 HENRIK STENSON 158.22, 3 MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ 156.86, 4 SERGIO GARCIA 145.24, 5 JUSTIN ROSE 141.38, 6 Luke Donald 123.50, 7 Padraig Harrington 122.35, 8 Robert Karlsson 121.33, 9 Daniel Chopra 116.63, 10 Martin Kaymer 114.42, 11 Ian Poulter 107.94, 12 Oliver Wilson 104.05
EUROPEAN LIST
1 Jimenez 1,640,753, 2 Westwood 1,618,065, 3 ROBERT KARLSSON 1,365,522, 4 Stenson 1,241,701, 5 Rose 1,239,606, 6 OLIVER WILSON 1,229,157, 7 NICK DOUGHERTY 935,248, 8 MARTIN KAYMER 935,062, 9 GRAEME McDOWELL 934,982, 10 Soren Hansen 893,005, 11 Soren Kjeldsen 877,948, 12 Steve Webster 832,105
Other Irish
14 Padraig Harrington 765,711, 17 Peter Lawrie 623,876, 18 Damien McGrane 616,928, 28 Paul McGinley 498,526, 32 Darren Clarke 470,543, 34 Rory McIlroy 434,047.