Just before Padraig Harrington's success in the US PGA Championship last Sunday I sought out a man who knew better than most the significance of the European performance at the last of the major championships. I fetched a cup of coffee for Ken Schofield and sat him down to tell me what it was like in the early days of the European Tour when the number of competitors from Europe in major championships in the US could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Schofield was a good man to ask. He was the executive director of the European Tour for 30 years and saw it grow from the days when fewer than ten men competed in the PGA Championship to last week's high water mark when 31 Europeans entered, 13 made the cut, a European won and two others finished in the top four and there were more Europeans in the top 12 players than Americans, five to four.

"When we set out I don't think we could ever have dreamed that we would have such representation," Schofield said. "At this event [the US PGA] we got a bit of a head start because of the traditional relationship between the European Tour with the PGA of America and the British PGA and more recently the European Ryder Cup board. We always had somebody who would always take a phone call and particularly every second year when the Ryder Cup was coming to a head.

"But the Masters and US Open were different. In those days we were perceived as a second class tour and we had to keep chipping away to make the authorities in the US recognise our players. We were perceived as second class because we did not have a full tour in terms of the numbers of tournaments and our prize money was quite frankly sparse compared with America. When I started for every pound prize money that we had the US had eight dollars.

"One year Sam Torrance finished second to Langer in the Order of Merit and didn't get in to the Masters and I remember asking Hord Hardin [then boss of the Masters] why and he said: "runner-up never meant anything did it?" About that time Renton Laidlaw asked Hord if he could see a case for more international players and Hardin replied: "the first thing you've got to understand is this is a golf tournament in America specificially for Americans."

"The difference started when the great players of our generation got a start, particularly at Augusta, the Seves, the Faldos, the Langers and they showed that the very best of the European players were first class and not second class.

"We got a break with the USGA when David Fay took office. He became much more receptive than hitherto and we got top 15 off the money list in Europe for the first time in to the 1994 US Open at Oakmont when Ernie Els beat Colin and Loren Roberts. That was the biggest single break.

"I am happy with the way things are now. The happiness is seeing the fellows week in and week out contending. Like last week, Lee Westwood had a putt to tie in the Bridgestone Invitational, a World Golf Championship event, the week before the PGA. We never had such depth, did we? Well, we do now."

*****

Hero of the week: Padraig Harrington, not only for winning his second major championship in one month but for remaining the same friendly and easy going man that he was ten years ago. Harrington is less likely to allow success to go to his head than anyone I know.

*****

The Ryder Cup starts on September 19 and many golf conversations in the US centre on how Paul Azinger, the US captain, can get his team across the line first at Valhalla, Louisville. Jack Nicklaus, who captained the US twice to victory in 1983 and a loss in 1987 as well as leading the US to success in the two most recent Presidents Cup matches against a team from the rest of the world excluding Europe.