Newly-appointed European Ryder Cup captain, Paul McGinley admits he has a potential pool of some 20 to 25 potential vice-captains for Gleneagles.

McGinely is at Gleneagles for two days coming to grips with enormity of the Ryder Cup from outside the ropes.

This has included inspecting rooms and chosing those that he feels would be suit the European Team along with inspecting proposed new practice facilities and also walking over the PGA Centenary Course that will play host to the 2014 Ryder Cup.

And while the make-up of McGinley’s team will not be known to early September 2014 he has already been looking at possible Ryder Cup vice-captains ahead of naming four around May next year.

Paul McGinley revealing he has a pool of some 20 to 25 potential vice-captains. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)

One of those could be victorious 2002 European Captain, Sam Torrance.

“There will certainly be a big role for Sam (Torrance) in that I play a lot of money games against him at Sunningdale,” said McGinley laughing.

“We are good friends and we spend a lot of time together and we’ll discuss a lot of things.

“But at this moment I have 20 to 25 people who could potentially be very good vice captains and as it gets towards this time next year I’ll be solidifying that.

“However whether Sam is a vice captain or not, he will certainly be someone I’ll be seeking a lot of counsel from because I’ve learned an awful lot from him.

“He was my first captain so I’m probably going to learn more from him than anybody else – I had a really great experience under Sam.

“I would love nothing more than to have at least one Scot in the team. When we played in Ireland a quarter of the team were Irish so that’s the challenge now for the Scottish to get 25 percent of the team from the home country.”

However while McGinley hinted of a role for long-time friend, Sam Torrance he has also ruled out speculation in one Irish newspaper that legendary Gaelic footballer, Jim McGinness could be McGinley’s ‘wildcard’ and that McGinley will draw on the All-Ireland Donegal winning coach’s ‘man management skills’.

Well McGinley has dispelled any such notion.

“Jim McGuinnes is a close family friend but one of the Irish newspapers went off on a tangent saying he’d be my next right hand man,” said McGinley.

“But if he comes along it will be as a guest only.  So he won’t be sitting on the cart and riding around in team uniform or anything like that.”