Pestered Padraig pleads guilty

He admitted yesterday to being racked with guilt after pulling out of last week's Seve Trophy in his native Ireland, which suffered an embarrassingly poor attendance following his withdrawal.

This morning he will be back at the scene of his finest hour, Carnoustie being one of three courses used for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. But it was his absence last week in the face of creeping exhaustion and a sore back that has been preoccupying him.

"I was hoping it would be the best attended tournament in Ireland and that I would feel good about it," he said. "It didn't help me that it wasn't the case.

"I did feel bad when I tuned in and watched it on the Thursday and Friday. But something had to break —it was either me or the tournament.

"I know I chose wisely but it was a difficult decision. It was suggested 'why don't you just turn up and play golf' and it wouldn't be stressful for me to go and play 18 holes.

"That's the easiest thing to do. It's the talking that's the hardest, the practice, the work-out, all the sort of stuff to get you ready on the tee box."

He has accepted uncomplainingly that everyone wants a piece of him in his Championship winning year, but has already pledged to scale down his commitments next season.

"A lot of the tournaments now are like the Irish Open for me, a lot of distractions," he said. "I've been here two-and-a-half days and I've spent 45 minutes on the practice range. I would usually spend three or four hours each day. You see Tiger Woods playing 18 events in a year. As it is, I'm going to play 32 or 33. We all have to learn from who is at the top.

"I'm quite happy to jump into the pit at the moment, but I'm hoping that it tones down next year."

Colin Montgomerie was one who did make it to the Ballesteros event and he gave his diplomatically-couched approval to the captaincy debut of Nick Faldo, who leads the defence of the Ryder Cup at Valhalla next September.

But he did hint at Faldo's autocratic style of management and questioned whether Paul McGinley, who has resigned as a vice-captain, needed to be selected so far ahead of time.

Montgomerie said: "I think he was definitely respected by all of our team and the Continental team. He understands the Ryder Cup and matchplay like nobody else.

"He was as I expected Nick to be. We ate together at night and had chats, but there were no chats regarding team selection. He had everything worked out previously."

Montgomerie feels vice-captains should not be picked until after the team is settled, saying: "There's little that a vice-captain can do at this point. The best selection we've had in that role was Thomas Bjorn, who was picked the day after he didn't make the 2004 team.

"I would select a vice-captain a month before the event."