Olazabal will keep spirit of Seve strong in Euro camp

It came as no surprise when Paul McGinley added "my oldest friend on tour" Harrington and Miguel Angel Jimenez, whom he described as "someone the spectators love and a popular figure with the players", to a Ryder Cup backroom team which already included Sam Torrance and Des Smyth.

A return to the European fold by Jose Maria Olazabal, whose life in the Ryder Cup appeared to come to a crescendo during that miraculous victory at Medinah two years ago, was not expected.

However, it's impossible to imagine where else on the planet this intensely passionate Spaniard might be at the end of this month when hostilities commence between McGinley's marauders and an American team veteran skipper Tom Watson is expected to whip into a patriotic frenzy.

Scotland is the home of golf and the Ryder Cup is a spiritual home to Olazabal. Therefore, it makes perfect sense for McGinley to invite the former captain to stand at his side in Gleneagles in precisely the same way the Dubliner did for him in Chicago.

Torrance and Smyth, two long-trusted golf mentors, almost are part of McGinley's Ryder Cup furniture by now, while Jimenez and Harrington are there not just to serve the skipper and his team but also, in a sense, serve their time.

Unwritten

It is one of the finer unwritten traditions of the European Ryder Cup effort that future captains are groomed for this hugely demanding and intensive role.

Jimenez, at age 50 and placed by McGinley in charge of the team which competed at this year's EurAsia Cup, effectively has one chance to lead Europe into the Ryder Cup, the 2016 edition at Hazeltine, before drifting inexorably over the horizon into seniors golf.

While Nick Faldo will forever enjoy legendary status in European golf and has developed into an accomplished golf commentator, his hamfisted captaincy in 2008 at Valhalla resulted in an edict that future Ryder Cup captains should be active on tour.

Harrington inevitably has ambitions to play a seventh Ryder Cup but his presence among McGinley's lieutenants at Gleneagles places the Dubliner, 43 last Sunday, on pole with Jimenez in the succession stakes, with Paris in 2018 a possibility.

Doubtless, Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn also will see themselves as contenders for those positions. The Dane has extensive backroom experience at the Ryder Cup and Seve Trophy, while the Ulsterman assisted Olazabal at Medinah.

Of course, Bjorn, who bids for a hat-trick of Omega European Masters titles in the Swiss Alps this week, qualified for McGinley's team as a player and Harrington expects no end of teasing from his career-long contemporary at Gleneagles.

As he outlined the selfless duties which await him on the Ryder Cup fairways in three weeks' time, Harrington said: "I'm just there to help the guys and get whatever they ask for. If Thomas wants to have a bit of fun and winds me up all week, sending me for coffee and bananas and whatever, I'll just say yes and go do it. So he'd better some up with some good ones."

In fact, as Harrington well knows, the vice-captain's role is both crucial and intensive during the Ryder Cup.

It is physically impossible for the skipper to follow more than one group or match at a time in practice or play. With duties to the media also placing heavy demands on his time and a need to make pairings on the hoof as his players are on the course, he must implicitly trust the judgment of his assistants as they become his eyes on the golf course and, occasionally, lend a sympathetic ear to players off it.

McGinley will draw heavily from the experience gleaned by Olazabal, Jimenez and Harrington from 17 Ryder Cup appearances between them, while the Spaniard was vice-captain to Seve in 1997 at again at Medinah.

He succinctly explained the need for five vice-captains when he said: "I know it's been common in the past to have three or four but I feel an extra person is justified due to the additional workload which comes from being the home team.

"I also saw how well such a system worked when we ended up having five vice-captains under Colin Montgomerie at Celtic Manor in 2010 (Sergio Garcia was a late addition on that occasion)."

Motivator

Yet Olazabal will bring so much more to the equation in Gleneagles. A powerful motivator, he'll provide Europe's hugely talented pool of players a passionate, priceless link to Seve and Europe's finest traditions in the Ryder Cup arena.

Unlike McGinley, who rewarded Stephen Gallacher's heroics in Italy last weekend with a wild card, Watson resisted temptation, if any, to add an impressive rookie to his hand.

Chris Kirk may have outplayed World No 1 Rory McIlroy on his way to Deutsche Bank victory and the top of the FedEx Cup rankings on Labor Day, but the US skipper handed his picks to Ryder Cup veterans Hunter Mahan, Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson.

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