PAUL MCGINLEY GOES into 2014, knowing it’ll be one of the biggest years of his golf career.
The Dublin man will lead the European team as they attempt to defend the Ryder Cup title they won dramatically in Chicago in 2012.
And McGinley will realise that he’ll need former world No 1, Rory McIlroy, to re-find some of that major-winning form if the Americans are to be held off in Gleneagles in September.
“As much as Rory is my friend and I know him, I wouldn’t say I know him particularly well, I know him reasonably well,” McGinley tells Nathan Murphy in Today FM Sport’s end-of-year review show, which airs this week.
“Rory has his own team around him and just because I have been put in the position of the Ryder Cup captaincy, it doesn’t put me in the position of God and having to be involved in everybody’s life and telling everybody how to run their lives and what to do and all that. And as much as I am captain of the Ryder Cup team, it is one week next year. Rory’s got a very strong team around him and he relies heavily on that team. It’s not for me to go along and tell him what to do. He knows I’m always there if he ever wants to bounce some ideas off me, if he ever wants to discuss anything, but I certainly don’t think I should impose myself on Rory.”
McGinley, a keen Dublin football fan, also reveals he invited US skipper Tom Watson to Croke Park last September for the championship finale against Mayo.
“I went to the All-Ireland football final this year and I invited Tom to come along, but he couldn’t quite make it,” he says.
“When I arrived in Edinburgh that night, I met up with him and he knew all about the match. He’d followed it on the internet, he knew who’d won, he was interested to know about the game.
“He’s been to Kerry many times over the years as well too down at Ballybunion, he’s an honorary member there and he’s very familiar with Kerry football as well too, so he does have an understanding of the GAA.”
Today’s FM’s review show will air between 6pm and 7pm on both 26 and 27 of December.
