McGinley’s head rules his heart as good friend Donald is omitted

Phil Casey 06:20 03/09/2014
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  • Head rules over heart: McGinley happy he made the right call.

    European captain Paul McGinley is dreading his next meeting with Luke Donald after overlooking his former Ryder Cup team-mate for a wild card.

    McGinley selected Stephen Gallacher, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood for the biennial contest against the United States from Sep­tember 26-28, with Donald miss­ing out despite his superb record in team golf.

    The former world No1 achieved a 7-1 record in two Walker Cup wins and has claimed 10 and a half points from 15 matches in four pre­vious Ryder Cup appearances, all of which ended in a European victory.

    The 36-year-old also partnered Paul Casey to World Cup glory in 2004 but has paid the price for an indifferent season, recording just one top-10 finish on the European Tour in 2014.

    Donald’s very first Ryder Cup match was with McGinley against Stewart Cink and Chris Riley on the opening morning in 2004, but McGinley refused to let emotion get in the way of his decision.

    “There’s bigger things in life than making a phone call regarding sport, but it was a very, very difficult thing for me to do because of my personal relationship with Luke, because we get on so well,” said McGinley, who was also designated to “look after” Donald when he was vice-captain in 2010 and 2012.

    “We’ve shared so many emotions together in extreme circumstances. There’s a whole load of things that went on at Medinah two years ago that people aren’t even aware of.

    “His first Ryder Cup, he was so beset with nerves he didn’t hit a shot for the first six holes, but he came through. At the 18th, he hit a two iron onto the green when we really needed it for a half point.

    “When you have that kind of experience with somebody you never forget it. You bond with them. I have a very strong bond and feel­ing with Luke, and the next time I see him it’s going to be very tough.”

    McGinley admitted that the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles does not favour a relatively short hitter like Donald, while adding that it was small glimpses of form from Westwood that made the dif­ference.

    “Ian Poulter has never really shown a huge amount of form going into Ryder Cups in the past so I wasn’t that perturbed about seeing a lot of form from him,” he added. “The second easiest decision was Gallacher and the third one was the very difficult one between Lee, Luke and Francesco (Molinari). It was a very short head but ultimat-ely that little flourish of form Lee showed around the US PGA time and Firestone was a flourish that Luke wasn’t able to show and that’s how close it came down to.

    “There was some decent form after four missed cuts in a row. I asked him (Westwood) to show me some form and he stepped up to the plate and produced.”

    Gallacher’s selection means there will be three rookies on the team – Jamie Donaldson and Victor Dubuisson being the others – but McGinley believes the local favour­ite has shown he will be able to han­dle the pressure.

    “That’s the kind of pressure he was under in Italy, and he proved that he could do it,” he said.

    “He’s going to be able to handle Gleneagles. He is going to stand out there so proud when everybody is cheering him from his home coun­try. I didn’t do Stevie a favour – he did himself a favour,” McGinley added. “He got on the team on merit. Everyone talks about the final round on Sunday, but for me Friday afternoon, when he started out 15 shots off the lead, that was when he showed me he really, really wanted to be a Ryder Cup player.”

    Poulter has endured an injury-plagued season, but vowed to raise his game once more.

    “The Ryder Cup means a lot to me and I guarantee I will be ready to give it my best,” he said. “I feel very confident where my game is right now that in three weeks’ time, it’s going to be even stronger.”

    McGinley revealed he and vice-captains Des Smyth and Sam Tor­rance had played golf together on Monday before receiving a short presentation from their statisti­cians on the potential wild cards.

    The trio then watched the final round from Boston before McGinley telephoned all the play­ers on the world points list down to Westwood in 16th place, starting with Donald. That meant telling Miguel Angel Jimenez, Francesco Molinari and Joost Luiten they had also not been selected.

    The 47-year-old Dubliner will name his remaining vice-captains in the next 48 hours but ruled out the possibility of Donald being one of them. 

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