Padraig Harrington says 'dogs in the street' knew he wasn't on the Ryder Cup team

Even this guy knew Padraig wasn't getting picked for the team. (Getty Images)

Last week, Padraig Harrington's great early play at the Barclays had the golf world chattering about the Irishman possibly making it on the Ryder Cup team. Harrington had been on the last six consecutive European Ryder Cup teams and while he wasn't an automatic bid, it was looking like he might just play his way into the discussion for European captain Jose Maria Olazabal.

But it didn't happen. Olazabal went with Ian Poulter and Nicolas Colsearts, the former being a sold rock for the Europeans and the other a rookie that bombs the ball a mile and will be a welcome partner for any of the other 11 players.

As surprised as some of us might have been by Olazabal, who has never really had a great relationship with Harrington following a 2003 rules infraction argument, it wasn't news to Padraig, who said this to the Irish Golf Desk following the captain's pick announcements earlier this week.

"The dogs in the street knew I wasn't getting a pick, so it wasn't a hard phone call whatsoever," Harrington said. “It was a polite phone call from José. I knew the result. Obviously it wasn't news to me. I was quite comfortable with his two picks. I think they'll do very well."

Not being picked for the Ryder Cup team, especially as a veteran like Padraig, is probably extremely frustrating, but at the end of the day the only person you can blame is yourself.

If Harrington had played better throughout the season, or actually won the Barclays after an opening 64, it might have landed him on the team, beef be damned, but he struggled on Friday and Saturday with consecutive rounds of 75 and even a Sunday 68 barely propelled him in the top-20.

On top of that, Harrington hasn't won a European or PGA Tour event since his three majors in six starts back in '07-08. His PGA Tour season this year included just three top-10s, with no better finish than a T-4 at the U.S. Open, so it isn't like he was molten heading into Olazabal's decision.

So yes, if dogs were out crunching the numbers, they'd know that Padraig wasn't going to be at Medinah in September.