Pádraig has extra incentive

92nd US PGA CHAMPIONSHIP:GRADUALLY, ONE by one, they've made their way to the town of Kohler in Wisconsin. For the quintet of Irish players in the field, the drip-drip arrival to this town where bathroom fittings are king and responsible for an economic climate that appears recession proof, started on Saturday last with Darren Clarke's entrance, continued on Sunday with debutant Shane Lowry and followed with those of Pádraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, who'd all competed in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Indeed, those three Irish players who were in the field in Akron – where Hunter Mahan secured the biggest win of his career and booked his place on the US team for the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in October, and where world number one Tiger Woods left with more questions than answers about his game after a thoroughly miserable performance – could feel a degree of nervous anticipation about the US PGA Championship on the back of quite decent, all-round warm-ups.

In Harrington’s case, particularly, there were further signs his game is not at all that far from where he would want it to be. In fact, his tied-ninth finish – McIlroy was another who finished on that mark – enabled the Dubliner to edge ever-closer to an automatic spot on Colin Montgomerie’s team for the Ryder Cup as he moved to just €13,246 behind Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez on the European points list.

Jimenez occupies the ninth and last automatic place on the combined listings, and Harrington will be determined to finally secure his place on Monty’s team at this week’s US PGA so that he is not forced to alter his late-season schedule.

As things stand, Harrington’s desired itinerary over the coming weeks would be to remain on in the United States after the PGA to compete in the end-of-season money fest that is the FedEx Cup series. Harrington, a runner-up in the Barclays Championship, would prefer to play in that tournament again – which kick-starts the late-season run to the Tour Championship – rather than return across the Atlantic to play in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles which constitutes the final counting event for the European team.

Of course, he knows it is still within his own hands to decide his fate. And a good performance at Whistling Straits – a course for all the world with the appearances of a links but which demands quite different shot-making in actuality – would see Harrington able to plan as he sees fit. His desire to be at the Barclays tournament is also due to the fact he has arranged a clinic for golfers who participate in the Special Olympics, an organisation for which Harrington is a worldwide ambassador.

Harrington arrived in Whistling Straits on Monday with a plan to play a sequence of “nine, 18, nine holes” over the three days as he got familiar again with a course that last played host to the championship in 2004.

The only hangover for Harrington from Akron was his putting, which left him leaving a number of chances out on the golf course despite a closing 66.

Back then, Clarke emerged as the first round leader and was still tied for third going into the final round only to falter and finish in tied-13th, behind Vijay Singh, who won after a play-off with Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco.

Ironically, Clarke, who got a special invite from the PGA to play in the championship, finally broke back into the world’s top-100 in the latest rankings released yesterday despite not playing in Akron. He moved up two places, to 100th.

It’s a sign of the mediocre season which Sergio Garcia – once the golden boy of European golf – has endured that the Spaniard has decided to take a potential two-month-long break from the sport which would leave him missing the FedEx Cup series and most likely the Ryder Cup, an event he would require a “wild card” pick from Montgomerie if he is to play.

Garcia plans to stay away from competition until the end of October Castilian Masters on the European Tour, an event played over his home course in Spain.

“It’s been a long year and I haven’t had a nice, long break my whole career.”

The only way Garcia would cut into that planned two-month hiatus would be if he were to make the Ryder Cup, an event he has played in since he made his debut as a teenager at Brookline in 1999.

To make the team automatically, Garcia would need to finish in the top three in the PGA.

Of his decision, Garcia – without a win in over two years and who has played only 17 times this year – said: “I need a break. I need to miss the game a little bit.”

The only other tournament Garcia intends to play apart from Castilian is the Australian Masters in Melbourne in November.

Of course, a win in Whistling Straits would likely change all that.