European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley insists it is purely a ‘mark of respect’ to his American counterpart Tom Watson and the PGA Tour that he has put back by a day the naming later next year of his three ‘wildcard’ picks.
McGinley had been all set to announce his Gleneagles picks on the Monday following the final European Team qualifying event that will be the 2014 Italian Open.
Paul McGinley plays a bunker shot into 15 as his Chinese caddy looks on. (Photo – www.golfbytpurmiss.com)
It is the same day as the final round of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Deutsche Bank Championship and the second of the Play Off Series events that traditionally finishes on a Monday in Boston.
“It’s just cleaner moving it back by a day because before you could have one of the Europeans shooting a really low score on the final day of the Tour Championship and thus forcing the European Team captain to consider him as a wildcard pick,” said McGinley.
“So it’s a move we’ve decided on as a mark of respect to the Tour Championship in the States so that now both captains will be announcing their picks on the Tuesday.
“Also we had that situation in 2010 with Paul Casey and Padraig Harrington playing together in the States and Monty picking Padraig and leaving out Paul. You just could not have scripted that scenario.
“The decision also gives me an extra day to think who I will pick and then I’ll be at Wentworth on the Tuesday to formally announce who the three players will be.”
McGinley was commenting ahead of this week’s BMW Masters in Shanghai.
The Irishman has just returned from five days in the US where he had meetings in Boston with the Irish/American Society ahead of taking the Ryder Cup with him on a visit to the New York Stock Exchange.
“All the Americans I spoke to last week were unanimous in wanting to get back the Ryder Cup and all they talked about was getting the ‘W’,” said McGinley.
“It was a great five days and I will be there for a first time next year working for SKY at the Accenture Match-Play Championship.”
This week will be McGinley’s final event for 2013 after having decided to forfeit competing in the up-coming India Open.
“I was thinking of withdrawing from the BMW but as they are a major Tour and Ryder Cup sponsor I’ve come here to Shanghai and instead I won’t play the India Open,” he said.
And McGinley has arranged for a local female caddy to work for him this week with his regular caddy ‘Edinburgh Jimmy’ still recovering from the after effects of a serious bout of food poisoning that forced him out of the Portugal Masters.
“She’s a lot prettier and also a lot quicker than Jimmy,” joked McGinley.
