McGinley’s amazing year not over yet

PAUL McGINLEY’S amazing year simply gets better and better.

After his superb triumph in the Volvo Masters at Valderrama came yesterday’s news that he has moved up from 26th to 18th in the world rankings, an amazing improvement of 48 places on where he stood at the start of 2005.

Furthermore, his place in next September’s European Ryder Cup team has been virtually sealed as he is in third place in the world points behind Sergio Garcia and Colin Montgomerie and second to Monty in the European list.

He hasn’t always been at liberty to choose where and when he played but that’s no longer the case nor will it be for a very long time to come.

Yet he doesn’t intend to sit on his laurels.

Looming on the horizon are two more big events, the HSBC sponsored event in Shanghai and the World Cup of Golf in which he partners Padraig Harrington for the ninth successive year at Villamoura later this month.

McGinley is a highly intelligent individual, completely at ease when speaking to the media, and certainly not afraid to speak his mind.

He has given some hugely interesting interviews through the year on how golf courses should be set up to cope with the ever-increasing improvements in technology, and won’t allow himself to be dragged into a debate on which is more important, holing putts to win Ryder and World Cups or capturing for himself a title like the Volvo Masters.

“You can’t compare,” he declared. “Winning the World Cup with Padraig was huge and emotional for me. To win that for Ireland and the Ryder Cup is completely different. This is a selfish win. The other two were as much for everybody else as they were for me. If I’m being selfish, this is for Paul McGinley.

“I walked off the course after 74 on the first day at Valderrama and told the Irish press guys that I done pretty well to shoot 74 after having a triple and double in the first seven holes. I still got around in three over par and was only seven shots off the lead. I could easily have gone to 76, 77, 78.

“That kind of score would have blown me out of the tournament. I bogeyed the first hole in the second round and I didn’t have a bogey the rest of the tournament. That’s 53 holes around Valderrama without a bogey and something I’m proud of.”

He stressed how missing out on three big tournaments earlier in the season stood to him as he rallied from four shots starting out on Sunday to come back and win by two.

If there was any doubt about his mental capacity, it was dispelled by the manner in which he conquered the potentially treacherous par five 17th hole.

“It wasn’t a time to be gung ho,” he said. “It was comfortably on in two for me. It was really a 3 iron and probably I could have hit a good fivewood in there. I asked Darren [Reynolds, his caddie] exactly where I stood in the tournament. He listened for the cheers back on 16 and what he heard told him it was two pars for Monty and Garcia. So I was two ahead.

“I said, ‘well, you know, if I make a five here, I should be at least one ahead going down the last, and if I make a four, I’ve pretty much got it in the bag.’ I hit such a good tee shot that I was able to lay up with only a nine iron and after that it was 112 yards to the flag, just perfect for a sand wedge.”

Outwardly, Paul looked calm and cool as he knocked in a six-footer for the decisive birdie four but he admits to butterflies in his stomach: “I’m trying to win a massive tournament. I’ve had chances to win three massive tournaments this year and it hasn’t happened. I didn’t want it to go pear shaped again. I really wanted to win and of course I was tense. Anybody who tells you they are not tense on the 17th hole in Valderrama with the Volvo Masters on the line is lying, I don’t care who they are.”

McGinley has always maintained he was a slow developer at just about everything. That being the case, it is hardly surprising that at 38 and, apart from a troublesome knee, probably fitter than he’s ever been, he believes he can still capture a major championship: “I really do. The indication for that is the quality of my golf. In the past, I didn’t have the array of shots that I have now so that makes me think, yes, it is there now. I think that you have to build up to it and let it happen. I’ve learned a lot, I’ve won a big title at Valderrama and it’s important now for my career that I go on from here, and certainly not plateau.

“Of course my confidence is boosted. You know, it’s hard to be confident when you’ve been up there and not won. What’s most important is that I won in style. I did what I had to do. I put the harsh lessons of the past into play. I played the shots that I had to play, tough shots over the last five or six holes which are as difficult as you’ll find anywhere and that gives me a lot of confidence.”

Many people over the weekend commented on how trim and fit he looked and there’s a good reason for that: “I have a very good physio at home and go to him four or five times a week for stretching and strength. I’m only five foot seven-and-a-half and weigh just over 11-and-a-half stone.

“So in order for me to compete with the big guys who are six foot three and much heavier than me, I have to be strong and I have to be fit. I recognised that a long time ago and it’s something that’s important if I’m going to compete.”