Gleneagles winning European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley reckons the 2027 Adare Manor host resort will suit the visiting Americans more so than host Europe while also revealing the words of a US Naval Seal that helped the visiting European team win the Battle of Bethpage Park.
McGinley stunningly led Europe to a third Ryder Cup win in succession at the 2014 hosting of biennial event in Scotland following in the winning captaincy footsteps of Colin Montgomerie in Wales in 2010 and Jose Maria Olazabal at Medinah in 2012.
Remarkably in the history of the Ryder Cup it was the second occasion for triple Europe victory treat and remarkably in a matter of only seven stagings of the Ryder Cup after Sam Torrance (2002), Bernhard Langer (2004) and Ian Woosnam (2006) had sealed a maiden European victory hat-trick.
HOME COURSE TO SUIT VISITING AMERICANS …
Says Paul McGinley @mcginleygolf while 2014 @RyderCupEurope captain reveals Luke Donald still undecided if he’ll accept ’27 lead reins
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— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) December 1, 2025
And while Luke Donald remains undecided on continuing to lead Europe later next year, McGinley’s not too sure if an Irish homegrown course and crowd advantage will work.
McGinley said: “I think Adare Manor will suit the Americans with the style of golf that they play. They like it down there.
“I think the crowd will behave well, which will help the American team. And we’ve got to correct a little bit of complacency that we had on the Sunday at Bethpage.
“Trying to win again for a third time is not easy for a team going in with expectations on your shoulders”.
McGinley, and one of Donald’s vice-captains at Bethpage Park, revealed a huge key to the European’s triumph close to the Big Apple City and that was being prepared for ‘bad’ crowd behaviour.
He said: “As bad as the crowd behaviou was at Bethpage, we had prepared the team so well that it didn’t seem as bad.
“There’s a great line from a Navy SEAL I read years ago. He was asked what do you do in a hostile environment, when you’re in Afghanistan or Iraq and you get isolated from your team and you’ve got 20 people trying to shoot you and kill you?
“You’re on your own. What do you do when it’s a life-or-death situation? And his answer was, ‘I dropped to the level of my training’. And I thought that was so insightful, and I’ve never forgotten it”.
McGinley continued: “He said that he dropped to the level of his own training. In other words, he trained to this level, and even life or death was only at this level.
“So basically, he’s so well prepared to deal with the situation, and going into Bethpage, we were going to prepare the players for this incredibly difficult situation.
“And as difficult as it got, it wasn’t quite as bad as what we had prepared the players to face. And I think that’s why we saw a huge upturn in our performance.”
As for the 2027 and 100th anniversary captaincy, McGinley reckons a decision will come early in the New Year.
McGinley said: “I honestly don’t think that [Luke] knows what he wants to do yet,” he said.
“I spoke to him last week, and he’s still so undecided as to what the future is. He’s going to take Christmas and make a decision early in the New Year.
“We really need to appoint somebody by February or March next year. And there’s no doubt that if he goes for three in a row, that will be an even better achievement. But it’s going to be very, very difficult to try to win three in a row”.
McGinley was speaking during the annual Terenure College RFC Corporate Lunch in Ireland and with his quotes appearing in the Belfast Telegraph.
