Clarke hints at safety in numbers for Harrington

Is Monty still in control? Or is player power ruling the Ryder Cup?Vice-captain Darren Clarke believes Padraig Harrington will escape the Ryder Cup wildcard row that dogged Ian Poulter two years ago.

Poulter snubbed the final qualifying event at Gleneagles to play in the $10m FedEx Cup series when he could still have played his way into Nick Faldo’s team.

Harrington faces a similarly embarrassing situation as he skips the Johnnie Walker Championship for the Barclays in two weeks and could need one of Colin Montgomerie’s wildcards.

But with Justin Rose and Paul Casey also opting to remain in the US, Clarke reckons that Harrington will not become the centre of a storm of protest.

Hinting at safety in numbers for the Dubliner, Clarke said: “Padraig is a world class player. He’s obviously just got a bit of a tough run, but he is playing really well. We’ll see. I can’t say.

“It’s up to Monty to decide what he thinks is best. But I don’t think the guys skipping Gleneagles will really influence him too much.

“I don’t think this is quite the same as (Poulter) two years ago. Why? Well, there is three of them.”

Clarke’s hopes of making the Ryder Cup team as a player ended when he took 34 putts in a closing 73 to finish well down the field on one-over par.

As a result, he will pull out of the this week’s Czech Open to spend time with his two sons before turning up at Gleneagles for Montgomerie’s wild card announcement.

Frustrated on the greens once more, Clarke said: “I’ve hit the ball really really well but I just lost my patience completely on the greens.

“I tried my best and I’ll just take couple of weeks off now.  Tyrone and Conor are starting school and we are moving house.

“Obviously things have not gone the way I wanted this week so I’m going to take a little bit of time off and put the family first.”

Clarke added that he still has a lot of goals to aim for this season with places in next year’s majors up for grabs through the Race to Dubai rankings.

He said: “I want to try and get as far up the money list as I can to get into the Open, the US Open, all of that. I’m very happy with the way I’m playing.”