Harrington defends Europe's Ryder Cup performance

RYDER CUP:Criticism of the European team for their Ryder Cup thrashing by the United States was unfair, says three-time major winner Pádraig Harrington, but it will be used to drive them to victory next time.

Harrington, a member of the team that lost 16½ points to 11½ in Louisville, Kentucky, last month, said the US had been deserved winners and no one should be blamed for the defeat.

"It was a disappointment, for sure, but not as disappointing as (the last defeat) in 1999," the Dubliner said in a conference call yesterday.

"The US team deserved the win this time. Why we lost, we could talk about it for a long time . . . next time we'll have home advantage and the fact that we lost makes us more motivated and as a team, very strong."

Europe's captain Nick Faldo came under fire at Valhalla Golf Club for overlooking Cup stalwarts Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie as his two wildcard picks, opting instead for Paul Casey and Ian Poulter.

But Harrington defended Faldo and said critics should focus on the performance of the team, not just the result.

"When people analyse things after the event, they look at the result and decide that something wrong happened; we have seen that in the Ryder Cup over the years," he said.

"A captain has done a bad job and won and he gets a lot of praise.

"The captain can do everything right and still lose. Every losing US captain has had a lot of criticism; it's just about results and results don't always reflect the performance."

The next Ryder Cup will be staged in 2010 at Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, Wales.

CHALLENGE TOUR:England's David Horsey will seek to overturn a three-shot deficit on the final day of the Margara Diehl-Ako Platinum Open on the European Challenge Tour.

Horsey's 66 moved the man from Manchester to 16-under-par 200, three shots behind Taco Remkes of the Netherlands, whose blistering form continued with a round of 65 for 19-under-par 197. With many of their closest rivals in the rankings enduring difficult days at Margara Golf Club in Italy, the two are now also favourites to claim the coveted number-one spot.

Colm Moriarty is best of the Irish on seven-under-par 209, the same mark as Gareth Shaw, while Gareth Maybin shot 70 for 211.

EISENHOWER TROPHY: Ireland jumped from 25th to a tie for 15th place after the second round of the World Amateur Team Championship at the Royal Adelaide and Grange Golf Clubs in Adelaide, Australia.

The Irish team were in action at Royal Adelaide, and, playing in glorious sunshine, Jonathan Caldwell scored a three-under-par 70, Paul Cutler returned a one-under-par 72 and Shane Lowry had a three-over-par 76.

With the best two out of three scores to count each day, Ireland finished the day at four under par and are now one under after 36 holes, 16 shots behind the joint leaders, Scotland and the US.