So when it emerged that Europe captain, Ian Woosnam, had apparently already offered Darren Clarke a wild card for next month's Ryder Cup matches, it was more evidence that the sport's wheel just keeps on turning.

The rumour that Woosnam was prepared to give the grieving Clarke the option of competing at the K Club had done the rounds of the Medinah media centre earlier in the week, but the American TV station, the Golf Channel, was the first to report the story, insisting that it had been briefed by two sources close to the European Tour.

It seems that Clarke might play in the Madrid Open, the week before the Ryder Cup, and if he believes his game is sharp enough, he would then take his place in the Europe line-up. If, however, he feels he would be unable to face the rigours of one of golf 's most demanding events, he would withdraw and Woosnam would offer the wild card to someone else. Colin Montgomerie has said that a Europe team without Clarke is a "weaker team", and Woosnam is clearly making a gesture of loyalty to a player who has performed with distinction in the last four Ryder Cups, and who under normal circumstances would have qualified by right.

On Friday, the US captain Tom Lehman endorsed Woosnam's decision saying it was "right" that Clarke would be given a wild card, but there have to be serious doubts over whether his participation in the matches, coming in the weeks after the tragic death of his wife, would in fact be good therapy.

Not alone is the Ryder Cup both highly emotional and highly pressurised, it is also an event in which the players' wives and partners have unusually public roles. There are dinners and social functions during the week, never mind the memories of previous Ryder Cups he shared with Heather, which would surely be too painful for Clarke to endure. The actual competition might offer a release or a distraction from his grief, but the off-course activities would simply put him under too much strain.

Tiger Woods missed his first cut in a major as a professional at the US Open on his return following his father's death, and Padraig Harrington spoke of how he felt like locking his clubs away when his father died last year, so to think that Clarke would be mentally prepared for the cauldron of a Ryder Cup so soon after such a profound personal loss is fanciful.

Meanwhile, Harrington will be travelling on to the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio haunted by the disappointment of a second successive missed cut at a major.

Rounds of 75 and 74 left him five off the mark, and all he could conclude was that from now on, he would play a tournament before a major.

For Paul McGinley, who withdrew to attend Heather Clarke's funeral, there was a smidgeon of good news. His four nearest challengers in the race for automatic Ryder Cup qualification . . . Paul Broadhurst, Johan Edfors, John Bickerton and Kenneth Ferrie . . . all missed the cut.