Pádraig Harrington is 117 days away from having to choose his three Ryder Cup wildcards and he admits he’s acutely aware he’s under pressure to do the captaincy “justice” as the countdown begins to a full fan experience at Whistling Straits.

The Dubliner (49) is looking to follow in the footsteps of close friends Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn and go down in history as a winning captain.

That brings a pressure that’s far removed from anything he experienced during a storied playing career. But as the summer arrives and the qualifying race hots up, he’s now far more focussed on preparing for September than his own playing career.

“Look, the captaincy is one of those things that as you're going along before you get in the running for it, you think, Oh, yeah, yeah, I want to be captain, I'd like to be captain, I've had a career that deserves to be captain, that sort of stuff.

“And then the reality hits that it's your time, it's your turn, and in our case the European Tour players will come to you and say, Right, are you going for this? It's quite a shock to take it on because, one, there's obviously quite a personal commitment and time into it, but you don't want to be a losing captain. You want to be a winning captain, and you're putting a lot on the line being out there.

“It's not a ceremonial job. It's important, and it's important to the European Tour. It's important to the European Tour players, and you certainly want to do it justice.”

As a three-time Major winner, he has little to gain and a lot to lose by taking on the role. But he insists he took on the job in the belief he was the right man at the right time and not simply because it was his turn.

“I took it on because I believed I could do a good job and that I would commit and put the time and effort into it,” said Harrington, who sees the next three Majors and the Olympic Games as the events that will ultimately decide the make up of his team.

“It’s been interesting, you know. There’s work. It's not straightforward. I really have to thank Thomas Björn and Paul McGinley for the amount of work you have to do on the Ryder Cup when you come from Europe because they really did turn it into a full-time job.

“But you don't want to leave any stone unturned and those two were great captains and you want to live up to what they did in terms of the time and effort and the work behind the scenes.”

While Lee Westwood has made himself unavailable for selection for Tokyo, Harrington sees the Olympics as a key event that could identify the kind of player he wants on his side.

“The Olympics creates that pressure and tension,” said Harrington, who was one of the original advocates for the return of golf to the Olympic family in 2016. “Winning an Olympic medal is a big deal. I've seen that.

“I’ve traveled the world since the last Olympics, and even as a three-time major winner, Ryder Cup captain, I could be introduced in some countries and they might say three-time major winner, I get a clap. They might say Ryder Cup captain I might get a cheer. But when you say an Olympian they can recognise that that's something they can judge a merit off of what you did in your career.

“It is a big deal being an Olympian, and especially would be a big deal if you won a medal, gold medal. That will put players under pressure and stress, and from my perspective if a player can go out and win in the Olympics, that's the sort of player I want on the first tee of a Ryder Cup.”

Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and Rory McIlroy from the European Points list and Viktor Hovland, Lee Westwood, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Victor Perez and Paul Casey from the World Points standing currently occupy the nine automatic spots in his team.

That leaves the likes of Robert MacIntyre, Danny Willett, Sergio Garcia, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Bernd Weisberger and Matt Wallace battling for those three captain’s picks.

“My team seems to be reasonably settled in the top nine positions, and it kind of looks like most guys are playing to impress me,” said Harrington, who is focussing less on his own game so he can spend more time with his players.

“I've changed a little bit, especially kind of the Masters time was a watershed. I played golf up to that and it was awkward to kind of do things. But since then I see myself spending more time with the players at different stages and trying to take a little bit more time out of my day. Like I played a nine-hole practice round on Sunday with Tommy and things like that.

“Just trying to be around the guys a bit more and maybe stepping out from what I'm doing. Normally at a tournament I'm a busy person, keep my head down, do my work, but I'm trying to make that effort to step out from that and just spend a bit more time.

“I'm definitely not as focused on my own golf as I would have been pre-Masters. I'm more focused if anything on the Ryder Cup now.”