"McGinley would leave no stone unturned"
God only knows what is going on behind the scenes as the 2014 Ryder Cup captaincy politicking reaches its zenith prior to next week's gathering of great minds.
Martin Dempster in The Scotsman steps forward with a commentary that won't make Monty happy, but does make plenty of sense for the cause of Paul McGinley in light of Tom Watson's appointment.
Forget the fact it would be a bit like David versus Goliath in terms of stature between him and Watson. Forget the fact also that McGinley doesn’t have a major title to his name and has only finished in the top five once on the money-list in 21 seasons on the European Tour.
Of more importance is the fact he’s been groomed for this position, having served under both Montgomerie and Olazabal as vice captain in the Ryder Cup and also proving himself on his own two feet when leading Great Britain & Ireland to victory over Continental Europe in the 2011 Vivendi Cup.
McGinley would leave no stone unturned in his bid to become a winning Ryder Cup captain as well and would quickly earn the respect of his opposite number, even though their paths will rarely have crossed due to a 17-year age gap. Having won seven of the last nine biennial bouts, this is no time for Europe to be making knee-jerk reactions to Watson’s appointment – and, sadly, tossing Sandy Lyle’s name into the hat next week would fall into that category. It’s simply too late now for one of the great ambassadors for European golf to be given his chance of the captaincy.
Monday, January 7, 2013 at 11:41 PM
Reader Comments (14)
McGinley's more than ready for his tilt at the captaincy. He has intelligence, grace, the respect of his fellow players and the nous to get the best out of any team that's given to him.
Oh aye, and he's popular in Scotland too!
The ET obviously does not need to panic -- they already have Ian Poulter on their team, qualified or picked, so are assured of a "playing captain" who will lead and inspire on the course, and he is, despite all the hype that surrounds his particularly visible sort of passion, not the only one who will populate that team to feel that way about the Ryder Cup.
The US needed to panic, and did. The right response is to name the right captain, who is perfectly described by C&C above.
Why? If a person wants the job, and is qualified, why should they step back?
Hagen -- 6 (consecutive)
Hogan -- 3 (20 year span between 1st and last)
Snead -- 3 (18 year span between 1st and last)
Burke -- 2 (16 year gap between the two)
Palmer -- 2 (12 year gap)
Nicklaus -- 2 (4 year gap, Trevino in between)
Whitcomb -- 4
Rees -- 5
Brown -- 2
Hunt -- 2
Jacobs -- 2
Jacklin -- 4
Gallacher -- 3 (most of the UK/Euro captaincy's were consecutive)
This one-and-done theme really only started with Lanny and Seve in 1995, which dovetails nicely with when the good ol' USA started sucking wind!!
Personally I'm glad the one-and-done ends with Tom and for the sake of the USA's chances let's hope UK/Europe does not follow suit....
Frankly, I believe Tom is a better captain than Toms, and ditto on Monty over Paul. (no disrespect intended to Toms or Paul)
Or is it really just an "exhibition" like Rory and Duval said and as such the captaincy is irrelevant?
Poulter sure does get excited for something that's simply an exhibition...and Seve's captaincy sure seemed relevant...and...