Truth & Rumors: Padraig Harrington says 'Dogs in the street knew I wasn’t getting a pick'

Way back last week, when Padraig Harrington was torching Bethpage Black and blowing gingerly on the fading embers of his Ryder Cup chances, a lot of digital ink was spilled dissecting Harrington's sour relationship with European captain Jose Maria Olazabal.

Well, as expected, Olazabal didn't pick Paddy, announcing instead that Nicolas Colsaerts and Ian Poulter will head to Medinah in September.

Still, as captains do, Olazabal called Harrington to inform him that he wasn't getting the nod. Harrington's reaction? Unsurprised, according to the Irish Golf Desk.

"The dogs in the street knew I wasn’t getting a pick, so it wasn’t a hard phone call whatsoever," Harrington told Brian Keogh on Monday. “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."

Olazabal, speaking at Gleneagles in Scotland after the announcement, said that his phone call to Harrington was the toughest one he had to make, according to The Scotsman. But Olazabal sounded pretty stern in his comments:

“I felt I had to make the phone call to Padraig more than anyone else,” said Olazabal, who also got in touch with David Lynn, Rafael Cabrero-Bello, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Alvaro Quiros after they’d fallen just short as well.

“Padraig is a very good player, but you could also say that about the likes of Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson, other former Ryder Cup players. The fact is that he [Harrington] didn’t perform well enough. He’s a great champion, but Thomas [Bjorn] was also ahead of him on the list.”