Harrington adds Wyndham

Pádraig Harrington is preparing for a long trip to the US. Picture Eoin Clarke www.golffile.iePádraig Harrington has added the final tournament of the regular PGA Tour season to his schedule in a bid to boost his chances of teeing it up in at least two FedEx Cup play-off events.

Currently ranked 118th in the FedEx Cup standings, the 41-year old multiple major winner must be inside the Top-125 in the FedEx Cup points to qualify for The Barclays, the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

As a result, he’s added the Wyndham Championship - the last FedEx Cup qualifying event - to his schedule and could play five events in as many weeks if he also makes the Top 100 who for the second play-off event, the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.

Having failied to qualify for next week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational for the second year in a row, Harrington will tee it up in the PGA Tour’s clashing Reno-Tahoe Open instead before heading to Oak Hill in New York for the US PGA Championship.

Two good weeks in Reno and Rochester could catapult Harrington well up the standings, but he has added the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro from August 12-18 as a precaution

Writing on his blog this week, Harrington said: “I am off for a week before I head to the States for a five week run of tournaments; I am playing an extra one so as to boost my FedEx Cup standing. I am currently close to the cut off for The Barclays, the first play off event, so need to get up the rankings a bit.”

Harrington will be joined at the Wyndham Championship , where he finished 47th two years ago, by Irish Open champion Paul Casey and Germany’s Martin Kaymer

The field also includes commitments from defending champion Sergio Garcia, reigning FedExCup champion and 2007 Wyndham winner Brandt Snedeker, 2011 Wyndham winner and 2012 U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, Wyndham winners Davis Love III and Carl Pettersson as well as former major winners Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink.

Kaymer, who was No. 1 in the world only two years ago, is 36th in the Official World Golf Rankings and 126th in the current FedExCup point standings.

“We always say our field really starts to take shape after the Open Championship, and that is definitely happening this year,” tournament director Mark Brazil said.

“This group of European Tour players shows that we are going to have another excellent field at the Wyndham. I am really starting to get excited about the field we are assembling for this year’s tournament. It’s going to be really, really good.”

Contested annually on the Donald Ross-designed course at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., the Wyndham Championship was founded in 1938 and is the seventh-oldest event on the PGA Tour.