In the months after Henrik Stenson was named as Ryder Cup European captain in March 2022, Pádraig Harrington teed up in three separate Majors and suffered a triple cut.
It was only the third time in his long, stellar career that he has suffered three Major cuts in one season – see also 2005 and 2010 – and it pointed to a golfer who looked perhaps more suited to the senior Champions Tour, having made a blistering start in that new environment after hitting the big 5-0.
Golf is an incredibly fluid sport though and a lot can change rapidly.
Stenson is no longer European captain for autumn's event in Rome, replaced by Luke Donald in punishment for joining the breakaway LIV Tour.
Harrington is no longer viewed as a golfer who is showing up because eligibility rules allow him to do so, but instead as a genuine competitor who has finished inside the cut-line in seven of his eight PGA Tour/DP Tour events in 2023.
That form was strengthened by another good showing at the Scottish Open last weekend, and it could have been even better but for three closing bogeys denying him a top-20 spot.
So what does it all mean?
Well, the Dubliner tees off in the Open at Royal Liverpool on Thursday and it’s not stretching it too far to claim that it may end up being one of the most important Majors he ever plays in - outside his three wins - should things go to plan.
Winning is almost certainly beyond him [an assertion he strongly denies in an interview with the Guardian this week] with his two previous visits to Hoylake resulting in missed cuts, but a strong finish here could see calls for his Ryder Cup inclusion grow from a careless whisper into cautious chorus.
It seemed fanciful – it still seems fanciful – but there’s no denying that it’s now a real conversation point and Harrington is keen to be a topic of debate at the water cooler. His caddy Peter Cowen has reportedly been pushing hard to anyone who will listen, even to Donald himself, about the strength of the Irishman's credentials.
"We have talked about The Ryder Cup, he [Donald] has been on the phone," Harrington told RTÉ Sport this week, speaking about a Donald phone call to congratulate him on his recent Champions Tour Dick's Sporting Goods win.
"I wasn't at his barbecue last week for the players in contention so that would suggest right now I don’t stand in his plans, I’m not his make-up. But as I said, we have talked so he he's aware that I could push myself into that position."
Harrington is pencilled in to play some more senior events in the coming weeks, but also plans to play tournaments that provide Ryder Cup points - but more so because he thinks he can win them.
"I considered changing my schedule based on the Ryder Cup but if I wasn't in contention I wasn’t going to change my schedule," he said. "I’m now changing my schedule regardless because I’m playing well enough to win.
"As regards to the Ryder Cup, the likelihood is if I'm going to win, I’m probably going to win a bit too late [to qualify automatically].
"I'm not in his pick at the moment, I have to do something to change his mind to play at the Ryder Cup."
There are other factors that perhaps give Harrington a leg up, not least the fact that LIV players - Ryder Cup veterans who all made Harrington’s 2021 team - Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are not eligible because of their controversial Tour switch.
That’s a whole lot of experience gone missing.
At present, the six players in the automatic spots as we stand - Rory McIlroy [six previous appearances], Jon Rahm [2], Tyrrell Hatton [2] and Matt Fitzpatrick [2], Viktor Hovland [1] and Robert MacIntyre [0] - have just 13 Ryder Cup appearances between them with the County Down man accounting for nearly half of those.
Assumed automatic picks Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry only have three showings between them too. The options for the other four spots available to Donald are made up of a number of players who would be making their debut, with Séamus Power, Sepp Straka, Adrian Meronk and Yannik Paul among the players likely to be under serious consideration.
Donald has spoken of bringing through an exciting, young crop but he must seriously be considering a veteran for one of his half-dozen picks. Ironically, that may end up being Justin Rose, who was the big-name omission from Harrington’s team two years ago.
That event in Whistling Straits was one of the low points of Harrington’s career as he captained the side to a 19-9 hammering – the largest Ryder Cup losing margin since 1967.
The Irishman, not surprisingly, had to stomach plenty of criticism in the aftermath.
Rose’s absence was clearly felt, although Bernd Wiesberger’s late charge to push Lowry out of an automatic spot played a part there. If it was Wiesberger v Rose for a captain’s pick, the Englishman would have been on the plane. In the end it came down to Lowry v Rose.
It is no coincidence that Europe has now opted for the six-qualifiers, six-wildcard route that served Team USA so well last time out.
There were some questionable on-course calls though in Wisconsin. The decision not to send Rahm and Garcia out in the Friday afternoon fourballs after a brilliant morning session was head-scratching while Tommy Fleetwood was also underused as the hosts built up a massive lead on day one.
Harrington will be hoping that black mark isn’t permanent though, after all he is aiming to head to Italy as a player not as a captain or vice-captain.
He has played six times for Europe and has helped them to victory on four occasions, and he’ll hope that is what Donald remembers.
If Harrington were to be a wildcard selection, he would make a bit of history.
In 1993, Ray Floyd became the oldest player to compete in the Ryder Cup at the age of 51 years and 20 days. Harrington will be 52 years and 29 days when the first ball is struck at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.
Given that he is currently 183 in the world rankings, a rise of nine after his performance just outside Edinburgh last week, Harrington would also be well outside the considered range for potential players, but it must also be taken into account that his last two seasons have been basically split between PGA, DP and Champions Tour events.
In the 2021 Ryder Cup, played a year later due to Covid restrictions, Wiesberger was lowest in the world rankings at 63.
The last player to represent Europe before that from outside the top 50 [Andy Sullivan was 50th in 2016] was at the K Club in 2006 when Westwood [51] and Paul McGinley [53] featured. Team USA has had a number of players outside the top 50 in the same period - Brett Wetterich [68], also at the K Club, the lowest of that particular grouping.
So it all comes back to that word 'fanciful' again, but as golf has proven over the last two years, assumed scripts can be ripped up.
If Harrington’s name is riding high on Sunday afternoon and a third claret jug is not beyond the realms of possibilities, then one more unexpected chapter may just be penned yet. He'll certainly have no problem letting the world know.
