Harrington contemplating Irish PGA warm-up for Ryder Cup

He can’t win the $10m FedEx Cup bonus at East Lake, so Padraig Harrington might just chase a €4,000 pay-day and a confidence-boosing seventh Irish PGA title the week before the Ryder Cup.The $10m FedEx Cup bonus is gone. So Padraig Harrington is sizing up a shock appearance in the €30,000 Irish PGA at Seapoint the week before the Ryder Cup.

The Dubliner is desperate to find his edge after his FedEx Cup KO in Boston on Saturday night left him facing more than three weeks without competitive action before the clash with Corey Pavin’s American side at Celtic Manor.

And while he’s also considering a trip to the clashing Vivendi Cup pro-am in Paris, a confidence-boosting seventh Irish PGA win over tour rivals such as Damien McGrane and Shane Lowry (and 57-year old, six-time Irish PGA winner Des Smyth) could be the boost he needs before he tees it up in Wales as a controversial Ryder Cup wildcard.

After missing his sixth cut of the season in the Deutsche Bank Championship to kiss the $10m FedEx Cup bonus goodbye, Harrington said: “I’ll definitely play before now and the Ryder Cup.

“As much as I’d like a break, and a break wouldn’t do me any harm, I still want to be competitive going into the Ryder Cup.

“You can’t get the sort of competition you want unless you’re on a golf course in tournament play.”

Harrington indicated in Boston that he would add a European Tour event to his schedule but later learned that the 100th staging of the €30,000 Ladbrokes.com Irish PGA was taking place the week before the Ryder Cup.

It’s too late to enter this week’s KLM Open in Holland and while he also has the option of pegging it up alongside Ryder Cup team mate Graeme McDowell in next week’s Austrian Open, sources close to the Dubliner believe he will reappear in Seapoint or Paris from 23-26 September.

Ireland’s triple major winner continued a rollercoaster season when he missed the cut by a shot in Boston and so failed to make the top-70 who qualify for the third leg of the FedEx Cup play-offs. It was the first time since the series began four years ago that he had failed to get past the second event of the four-tournament series.

Irish PGA boss Michael McCumiskey has yet to hear from Harrington’s management team at IMG but he insisted that the triple major winner would be welcomed “with open arms” at Seapoint. No kidding.

Instead of battling for a potential $10m (€7.5m) pay-off in the final FedEx Cup event in Atlanta, the Dubliner could be targeting a win worth just over €4,000 at the young links outside Drogheda that was designed by Des Smyth and his boyhood pal Declan Branigan.

Harrington was handed a controversial Ryder Cup wildcard by Colin Montgomerie for the clash with the USA at Celtic Manor from October 1-3 after being given the green light to skip the final qualifying event at Gleneagles to stay sharp in the FedExCup series.

While he’s in danger of dropping to 20th in the world today and is now winless for more than two years on tour, he insists his problems are more mental than technical.

With seven top-10s and six missed cuts this year, Harrington said: “The game’s fine and solid. I’m just not letting it happen.”