Newly-appointed European Ryder Cup captain, Paul McGinley has expressed his shock South African Paralympic double gold medal winner, Oscar Pistorius is facing a murder charge over the shooting of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius, winner of two gold medals in the 2012 London Paralympics accompanied McGinley during last October’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland and a week after McGinley, as a vice-captain, helped steer Europe to victory in the Ryder Cup at Medinah.

Pistorius spoke ahead of the pro-am event of his admiration for McGinley saying:  “Everyone that I tell I’m playing with Paul McGinley, everybody tells me what a nice person he is and how much they are looking forward to seeing us out on the course together.  Hopefully I ca n contribute to his score a bit and help him out when need be.”

Paul McGinley and Oscar Pistorius standing on the Swilcan Bridge in St. Andrews during last October’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

However the duo missed the cut in the event played on three courses in the east of Scotland.

And on returning to Scotland for a first official visit as the new European Captain, McGinley expressed his shock Pistorius was arrested and charged with murder.

“I am just completely shocked,” said McGinley.

“I spent three days in his company last October here in Scotland and really enjoyed his company.”

McGinley left Gleneagles yesterday (WED) having unveiled the Ryder Cup silver putter that will remain on show in the Dormy House at Gleneagles to the closing ceremony of next year’s Ryder Cup.

And Europe’s new captain revealed he will head to Florida in early May and the Players Championship to meet with Europe’s leading players to discuss ‘tweaking’ the team qualifying process.

Europe has won five of the last six Ryder Cups including last year’s ‘Miracle at Medinah’ but with a team nowadays almost entirely based in the States.

However McGinley, in his own meticulous manner, has spent the last month since his appointment researching whether the present qualifying system will help deliver Europe a record-equalling third straight success.

It could mean reworking the two qualifying points table or following in Davis Love 111’s footsteps and have four ‘wildcard’ picks.

“I’m about 60% down the path with that research but then I want to go to the Players Championship and bounce some of my ideas off the leading European players and to see how open they are to the idea of either a, b or c but without asking them to make a decision,” he said.

“However I can assure everyone it will just be a tweak rather than a change because I feel if it’s not broke, why fix it.”