Harrington holds on to last automatic Ryder spot

US Tour: Padraig Harrington's 26th runner-up finish of his professional career was confirmed yesterday when Ben Curtis finally collected the Booz Allen Classic two days later than expected after the event was plagued by bad weather. Harrington's performance has moved him up to eighth place on Europe's Ryder Cup world points list and up to 20th in the latest world rankings.

The 12.32 world ranking points Harrington received for his finish moved him up two spots in the world points on Europe's Ryder Cup qualifying list, where the top-five players will earn automatic places on Ian Woosnam's team.

He did drop a spot to 10th on the European points list, being overtaken by England's Kenneth Ferrie who finished in the top 10 at Gleneagles on Sunday, but still holds the last automatic qualifying place (see table right).

The Dubliner, who had at least managed to complete his final round on Monday, enabling him to travel on to Paris for this week's French Open, eventually finished five shots behind Curtis, who completed the final two holes of the final round yesterday for a finishing 70, for 264, 20-under-par.

It left the American, savouring his first win since the British Open in 2003, five strokes clear of Harrington, Billy Andrade, Nick O'Hern and Steve Stricker.

Harrington, though, with winnings of $330,000, moved from 47th to 34th on the US Tour's money list, with season's earnings of $1,194,175.

Naturally, he was glad the tournament finished, as he had started the final round in 10th and his hard work in moving through the field would have been to no avail had all the competitors not finished.

"I was a little worried we wouldn't get finished. It made a big difference to me as I was trying to get those ranking points for the Ryder Cup. If they pulled the (final) round, it would have been very disappointing."

Of Curtis ending his drought in winning, a feat that moved him up 101 places in the world rankings to 104th, Harrington remarked: "Ben has always had all the credentials. He had a good amateur career. He was a good young professional when he turned pro. Winning the British Open put him under a lot of pressure. If anything, it wouldn't be easy to play good golf after that.

"You can take it two ways. I think it came so early for Ben that he probably was always trying to prove to everybody he was an Open winner. Obviously wins like this proves that he's right. The fact he won it proves it, too. He will probably go on to be a stronger player now that he has another win under his belt."