Victorious Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley planted a ceremonial pine tree and unveiled a plaque to officially open his joint redesign of the North Course at Quinta do Lago on the Portuguese Algarve.
McGinley confirmed he will take his place in tomorrow’s (THUS) commencing Portugal Masters and joining his Gleneagles vice-captain Padraig Harrington and leading 2016 Ryder Cup captain contender, Darren Clarke.
It was McGinley’s first public since he spoke at the Closing Ceremony for the Ryder Cup and there was one key word he used at Gleneagles that resurfaced this morning on the Portuguese Algarve.
That word was ‘template’.
Paul McGinley along with along with Beau Welling and Dennis OBrien and CEO of Quinta do Lago John Dwyer planting a pine tree at the opening of the North Course of the Quinta do Lago resort. (Exclusive photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
And in planting a ceremonial pine tree and unveiling a plaque McGinley remarked: “At the closing speech of the Ryder
“The number of people playing right now is not increasing at the level we would like it to increase and a lot of people find the game very difficult, and some professionals as well (smiling),” he said.
“So the idea of renovating the golf course here at Quinta do Lago was to make it playable and by doing this we want to be able to encourage more people to come and play the course.
“So we didn’t not want to change the template of the golf course or change the routing of the course that has been here for 40 odd years now but to keep that in place and to upgrade it and bring it into the modern world.
“In saying that we have increased the landing areas to make them a lot fairer so that the ball doesn’t run off the fairways anymore and we have also sought to make it as visual so you can constantly see where you are going
Ryder Cup Captain and designer Paul McGinley along with Beau Welling and Dennis OBrien and CEO of Quinta do Lago John Dwyer during the opening of the Quinta do Lago North Course Algarve, Portugal.
(Exclusive photo – Fran Caffrey www.golffile.ie)
“Standing here on the 18th hole here is a great example as those you who can remember the previous tee was up on the right hand side and all you could see in the flag at the top of the hill. But by dropping the green down to left you can now see about 85% of the hole as before you could see zero per cent of green.
“We have tried to do that with all of the holes.
“So our main objective is to make the golf course playable ensure you have fun when you play this golf course. We want repeat business so that you will come back and play the golf course again. We want people who have enjoyed the challenge but if you have left a few shots we want you come back and do it again.
“As much as we have tried to simplify it there is there is also plenty of challenge out there it is also very fair and that’s what we have tried to.
“I have enjoyed sitting on the shoulder of my fellow course designers and basically the time scale of pulling off every sod on the golf course and renovating it and putting it all back down in 12 months has amazed me as it’s unheard of in the golf design business.
“So congratulations to everyone involved in pulling this off.
“Thanks folks.” Applause.
