Controversy over Ryder points for World Match Play
McGinley is one of eight Europeans in the 16-strong field. That means the exclusion of a whole host of other worthy team candidates.
Ian Poulter has been particularly vocal but got nowhere with European Tour officials clearly intent on promoting an event with such a prize fund.
The winner gets £1 million with £400,000 for the runner-up, £120,000 for the beaten semi-finalists; £80,000 for the losing quarter-finalists and £60,000 for those going out in tomorrow’s first round.
However, it isn’t quite as disproportionate as might at first seem because only a percentage of that money will be transferred into Ryder Cup and Order of Merit points.
Should there be a European winner, then his reward will be €601,828 or the equivalent in points. After that, it goes €401,223 for a European beaten finalist, €203,300 for the semi-finalists, €119,525 for the quarter-finalists and €62,380 for first round losers.
These are still handsome pickings and McGinley, competing in the event for the first time, is intent on kickstarting his drive to be in the European team at The K-Club next year.
Wentworth is ten minutes drive from his Sunningdale home and he finished runner-up there to Angel Cabrera in June’s BMW PGA Championship.
Ironically, his first round opponent, Thomas Bjorn, lives on the Wentworth estate and reached a memorable final in 2003 before losing to Ernie Els.
So there will be no local advantage for either man - nor will it help that McGinley and Bjorn are close friends. However, with so much at stake over the four days, there will be absolutely no room whatsoever for sentiment.
“This is a huge week for me,” said McGinley last night. “My goal for the next 12 months is to be a part of the European team at The K-Club and this presents me with the ideal opportunity of going a long way down that road. I like Wentworth when it’s playing hard and fast as it is after all the fine weather in this part of England. I’m looking forward to this week for several reasons and another is that match play has been good for me in the past.
“As an amateur, I won the Irish Close and South of Ireland Championships and did well for Ireland and in the Ryder Cup. Still, you have to have a bit of luck on your side because you can go out and play out of your skin and still get beaten.”
This week’s championship has lost a lot of its attraction by the absence of, among others, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson. You can hardly describe a tournament without the best four players on the planet and containing such names as Kenneth Ferrie, Mark Hensby and Geoff Ogilvy as a world championship but neither can you blame such generous sponsors as HSBC for this.
The cold facts of the situation are that money no longer holds any appeal or interest for the likes of Woods, Mickelson and Singh and in the light of that, it may well be that HSBC will seriously reconsider their commitment to the event.
It all means that Retief Goosen is the number one seed and fancied to meet Angel Cabrera of Argentina in Sunday’s final. Coming on the back of his win in Cologne, Goosen deserves his favourite’s tag but there are some fine players in the field who could well upset the applecart. We in Ireland will be hoping that McGinley is one of those.
Tee-off times for first round of the HSBC World Match Play Championship from September 15-18 at Wentworth
(Gbr unless stated) (All times BST):
Hole 1, 0736 Retief Goosen (Rsa), Kenneth Ferrie
0748 Colin Montgomerie, Mark Hensby (Aus)
0800 Tim Clark (Rsa), Steve Elkington (Aus)
0812 Michael Campbell (Nzl), Geoff Ogilvy (Aus)
0824 Luke Donald, Bernhard Langer (Ger)
0836 Thomas Bjorn (Den), Paul McGinley (Irl)
0848 David Howell, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa)
0900 Angel Cabrera (Arg), Trevor Immelman (Rsa).
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