McGinley happy to confide in and listen to Jordan

PAUL McGINLEY lavished praise on former Formula One boss Eddie Jordan after his victory in the Volvo Masters.

He spoke of how much he had benefited from Jordan after their player-caddie relationship in the German Masters earlier this year, stating: "I learned a lot but I'm not going to give away too many secrets."

Jordan himself, however, wasn't too reticent about revealing how the twenty year friendship between himself and McGinley had developed to such an extent that it is now proving mutually beneficial. McGinley was a guest at the Jordan's villa in Marbella all last week and during that time much banter and serious conversation was exchanged between the pair.

"I think he's been very instrumental in this win," said Paul. "We had a good bit of fun, watched Match of the Day on the TV this morning, I cooked breakfast, grabbed a shower and off we came."

While Jordan wasn't too impressed with the breakfast "he makes the crappiest porridge you can ever imagine, it was tacky, he had raisins on the top and honey, and it's not an advert for good porridge, then he cooked the bacon and that was okay" he was awfully pleased at his friend's magnificent success later in the day. The fact that he had a punt on McGinley at 33 to 1 wasn't the only reason.

"There are so many sports and each one can learn from another," said Jordan. "Psychologically, motor racing is a very, very tough sport. I felt that was something Paul could learn from. He has played brilliantly and I think we have seen a different side of the man. He was amazing this weekend. When I arrived here on Thursday and he had taken 74, he felt the world had swallowed him up. All major international sports are hugely influenced by mental well being and Paul's mind is very clear now and he won this tournament because of that.

"I'm overjoyed for him because I think it's been there all along but it was like a big monkey on his shoulder and he needed to get it off. He sort of lived if you like in the shadow of some great Irish champions, particularly Darren and Padraig, but now he can walk as tall as they can, great champions, great Irish people."

Eddie Jordan's advice has clearly meant a great deal to McGinley. Just as Padraig Harrington works with renowned psychologist Dr Bob Rotella and Ernie Els places his faith in Jos Vanstiphout, Paul seems to be happy to listen to and confide in an "amateur" like Eddie Jordan.

"Paul is too intelligent not to succeed," Jordan insisted. "He's a very bright man with a very good control of his brain and he had all the shots, so it was a matter of putting two and two together and coming up with four and he did and he will continue to do so. In the past, he's always had to slog for things like the Ryder Cup. Now that's more or less a done deal. Third in the order of merit, that's a great achievement."

Asked to explain how the friendship between the pair developed, Jordan smiled as he recalled: "My mother was captain of Bray Golf Club and her best friend was Greta Sweeney and her next door neighbour in Donegal was old man Mick McGinley's family. That's how it started, there has to be Irish folklore in there somewhere. Then I was told to look after this young fella who was coming to London and I thought I had enough on my hands looking after a hundred idiots in Jordan Grand Prix without looking after him. But it's been great and I'm very pleased to be here to see this day.

"One of the highlights of my life was to caddy for him in Germany. We agreed over a few pints at Christmas and he never let me away with it. He kept pushing me to do it whereas I thought I could easily get out of it. I rang him in July and said: 'Paul, you know this mightn't be the right thing to do'. I pointed out to him that he needed to finish in the top five to get into the World Match Play. I pointed out I couldn't be as good as the guy who does it every week. But he said 'no, no, he's taking a holiday, he's moving house, we've already agreed', and I realise now it was one of the best things I've ever done because I like doing things that I've always wanted to do.

."I did it because I wanted to and I felt it made a difference between us. We sat down and talked about how we would tackle each hole. I wanted to see a finer detail strategic plan of how he would structure mentally a win so it then comes more natural in the mind. If we can achieve that, then we move on to the next hole."

Lest anybody supposes that Eddie Jordan is claiming some of the praise for McGinley's victory on Sunday, it would be best to bear the players's own words in mind: "He's been very instrumental in this win."

The brilliantly sound manner in which he played the minefield that is the 17th hole paid ample testimony to the way McGinley was thinking and Jordan related: "We talked about it this morning; if you're two behind, go for it. If you're in front, lay up and make a four if you can. Don't care about anything else. It was a simple decision. They had to catch him."