PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON successfully accomplished a couple of missions in adding the Vivendi Cup to his itinerary: firstly, he – finally – showed his game had turned around in claiming a top-10 finish, his first since the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August; and, secondly, he stayed inside the world’s top 25 on the latest official world rankings to ensure a place in the field for the WGC-Champions Tournament in Shanghai in November, the cut-off point for which fell yesterday.

So, it was understandable that the Dubliner could meet-up with the other 11 members of Team Europe at Celtic Manor believing he had turned the corner and eager to get on with the job at hand this week where his experience – one of the key factors in getting a wild-card pick from captain Colin Montgomerie – will be important in Europe’s attempt to regain the trophy.

While all of the European team checked in for this latest date with destiny, Montgomerie refused to be drawn on whether he had put any player on standby in case he required to draft in a reserve. Lee Westwood has not played since withdrawing from the Bridgestone six weeks ago, while Peter Hanson was forced to miss the Vivendi Cup last week due to illness.

Montgomerie has until 3pm on Thursday to bring in a reserve should he need to do so. But yesterday the Scot claimed Westwood had made “a total, total return to full fitness . . . there was no need to go down that route (of naming a reserve)”.

Meanwhile, Paul Casey, the world number seven who was overlooked for a captain’s pick, has headed off on a biking holiday to Canada this week. “I wish Paul Casey all success. He did fantastically well in the FedEx Cup series,” said Montgomerie.