Padraig Harrington desperate to force way into European Ryder Cup team

• Three-time major winner currently reliant on wildcard slot
• Dubliner has three tournaments left to gain automatic selection

Padraig Harrington has admitted he would be “gutted” and “devastated” if he was not part of Europe’s team at the Ryder Cup in October.

With only five weeks left in the points race the three-time major champion admits he is in a “very perilous” position down at 17th place.

Yet things are so tight that if Harrington wins this week’s Irish Open at Killarney he could move all the way up to sixth.

Nine players qualify automatically at the end of next month and then captain Colin Montgomerie adds three wild cards.The newly-appointed vice-captain Darren Clarke says that he cannot envisage Harrington missing out, but competition is fiercer than ever before.

Five players in the world’s current top 25 – Paul Casey (9), Edoardo Molinari (17), Justin Rose (18), Harrington (19) and Henrik Stenson (23) – are in need of a wild card as things stand.

If the team were to be selected today Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald would qualify from the world points list, with Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Francesco Molinari, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Ross McGowan joining them from the European list.

But Rose has won twice in the United States recently, Casey and Stenson were joint third at the Open and Molinari won the Scottish Open three weeks ago – and won the World Cup with his brother Francesco last November.

Harrington’s last victory was the US PGA two years ago, but he was at great pains, with Clarke listening, to point out that in the past 12 months he has had no fewer than 14 top 10 finishes.

“I was asked the other day if I got selected would I actually pull out,” he said. “The inference was: ‘Would you pull out because you’re not playing well?’.

“I’ve had more top 10s in the last year than I’ve ever had in my career, so going on a guideline that most people use I’ve actually had the best year of my career. I haven’t won and that’s certainly below my expectations and everybody else’s expectations, but my form has actually been solid enough.

“I just have to wait and let it happen. I do try to be very disciplined in doing my own thing and not being influenced by outside factors – but clearly that one got to me.”

The 38-year-old Dubliner is focusing all his energies on the next three weeks – Ireland, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron and then the US PGA in Wisconsin – and trying to make sure he does not need to be picked as a wildcard.

But, should he still not be certain after that, it remains to be seen if he would do as Montgomerie wants and change his schedule to play the race-ending Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles rather than the non-counting FedEx Cup play-off event, The Barclays, in the same week.

“My schedule is set to play in The Barclays at the moment, so I’m really hoping that I play well enough in the next three weeks that I don’t have to think about not playing it.”

Ryder Cup teams as they stand

Europe Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Francesco Molinari, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Ross McGowan. Plus three wildcard picks.

US Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Lucas Glover, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Tiger Woods. Plus four wildcard picks.

Read more at: Sport: Golf | guardian.co.uk