Confident McGinley swinging into gear
He stands five under par for the championship but he was quick to stress that his game still lacks the level of consistency that might make him a serious challenger over the weekend.
On the plus side, he is one of the few players in the field who has no fears of the gale force winds expected to sweep in today. He recalled the 66 he returned in the third round here in 2004 that shot him up the leaderboard and began a string of outstanding results that clinched his place in the European Ryder Cup later that year.
“I’m on the fringes,” he reckoned. “The scoring was red hot (on Thursday), unbelievably so in fact, so there were a lot of players between me and the leader starting out (yesterday). I’ve gained a little bit of ground back.
“The conditions will dictate a lot. But as I say, if I can get that consistency, if I don’t make silly mistakes and don’t drop shots when I shouldn’t – don’t drop shots from the edge of the green as I was doing (Thursday) and make lots of birdies – then I’ll have the basis of a good score.”
McGinley, newly-appointed captain of the British and Irish Vivendi Seve Trophy team, was out in the worst of yesterday’s conditions and had good reason to be satisfied with his efforts.
“It was tough and I feel a lot better now but at 7.30am, my hands were ice cold and it was a battle in those conditions,” he said.
“That can work in your favour, strangely enough, because it keeps you in the present. To have high finishes you have to have consistency. But it was better today because I had five birdies and only one bogey.
“I’m really close to getting back to my best and I’ve been close for about the last month. If we had this conversation three months ago I would have said I’m miles away. I’m starting to see that there is something there, that there is a lot of quality.”
Looking to the future McGinley is relishing his Seve Trophy appointment, revealing: “I have some strong opinions on captaincy and I’ll put them into place and history will tell whether I am going to be a good captain or not.
“It probably could be an apprenticeship for me as Ryder Cup captain, in how I like it and how I make decisions. How I perform at the Seve Trophy will be important but having said that I still get such a buzz out of playing and competing and that is what I want to focus on.”
McGinley is delighted that there are no “wild card” options with the teams coming from the top five on the respective European Tour order of merit and the World Rankings.
Even if he qualifies, he will not play having given a commitment to captain the B & I team.
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