AT&T Classic preview: If you spot any Europeans, would you please send them back?

Either Padraig Harrington has been hitting the Guinness big-time or the scribes covering the Irish Open are really desperate for a story. Suddenly we’re inundated with headlines accusing that nice PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem of cruelly snatching European golfers almost from their cradles and whisking them off to America.

How is he doing it? That evil FedEx Cup and its points system that locks players into the American circuit as they reach for golf’s richest prize. And there was I thinking the FedUp Cup was dead boring.

There’s only one thing that can counter this accursed American plot, says our disgruntled Irishman (who as I recall has spent the last few weeks playing in America): European global domination! Correct me if I’m wrong here, but I thought the European Tour pretty much hacked all round the globe as it is. It certainly seems to spend an inordinate amount of time anywhere but Europe. So if they haven’t dominated the world already, I really can’t see that tying up with the Asian Tour and the like will make a huge difference.

Dear Paddy might like to factor in human nature (did I say greed?). It was neatly summed up by Graeme McDowell, who spouted a similar line: “They are going all out to steal all our top players and get them playing over there as often as they possibly can.” Then he added, almost in the same breath, that he was looking forward to going back to America to play. “There’s not a whole lot you can do about it.” Uh-huh.

I only mention this because the trigger for this curious outburst appears to be that there’s hardly anyone of note playing in the Irish Open. I don’t know why they are blaming America because there’s precious few of any note playing there either.

It will not have escaped notice that the AT&T is not quite the classic of yesteryear. No Phil Mickelson to defend and only one of the world’s top ten in the lineup. True, we also have the current Masters champion, but that hasn’t stopped the few scribblers covering this event from describing it as a minor-league lineup. Even most of the punters have gone on holiday.

It really is a huge pity Mickelson is not going to defend the title he has won two years in a row, but I understand. It’s a tough life this modern golfing.

It’s good news for Stewart Cink anyway. Maybe it finally gives the local hero - he’s got a house next to the course - a chance to win. Cink was having a mostly unexciting season until he took fifth place at the Wachovia two weeks ago, then finished a strong third in the Players last week. Is this, like Mickelson, the Butch Harmon effect? Is our famous coach about to notch two winners in a row? He’s got the Sugarloaf form to back his claims and the punters love him, bringing his exchange price in by more than 2 points to 14 through the week.

His prime rival is Augusta No 1 Zach Johnson, who won the then BellSouth Classic three years ago. He looks to be coming back into the hot zone and certainly on the stats makes a slightly better case than Cink. Could be an intriguing contest.

Also popular are:
Rory Sabbatini: if he can keep his mouth shut long enough and has got over his ignominious retreat down last week’s leaderboard - to finish behind Tiger Woods - he is many people’s fancy. What puts me off is his past record here - five missed cuts in the last six appearances.
Henrik Stenson: clearly one of those Harrington thinks should be in Ireland, he continues to chase the evil greenback with only modest success in the strokeplay at least. His stats are reasonable if unexciting, but in this field you can’t count him out.
Chris Di Marco: a very mixed history here with his best efforts receding into history. He looked to be on the up again last week, but had a disappointing finish. The jury’s still out.
Jonathan Byrd: currently top of my overall stats, he’s the sort of player who should win more than he does. He was sixth here last year and came a creditable 16th last week.
Fredrik Jacobson: was having a half-decent season until he ran into the buffers last week, but his stats say yes and he was 15th here last year.

I’ll also be keeping a weather eye on Matthew Goggin, second in my overall stats, whose record is here is far from perfect, but does include sixth in 2001.