Donald out as McGinley puts team first

It was on Monday evening that Paul McGinley bit the bullet, picked up the phone and put his friendship with Luke Donald on the line by telling him he would not be on Europe’s Ryder Cup team this month.

McGinley, 47, had been the Englishman’s playing partner at Oakland Hills in 2004 on that first morning in Detroit, nursing Donald the rookie through his nerve-jangling introduction to the white-hot pressure of a Ryder Cup before the pair halved their fourball with Chris Riley and Stewart Cink to earn Bernhard Langer’s team the half point that kept Europe unbeaten in the opening session.

That had been the type of match that forms lifelong bonds between team-mates but with the dynamic changed a decade on, captain McGinley, after a day in consultation with vice-captains Des Smyth and Sam Torrance at Queenwood Golf Club, had to tell player Donald his services were not required at Gleneagles in three weeks.