Donald out as McGinley puts team first
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.
The “green shoots of form” had not been in evidence these past couple of months, whereas Lee Westwood had delivered what the Irishman had asked of his struggling stars.
“Let’s not get things out of perspective, there’s bigger things in life than making a phone call regarding sport, but it was very, very difficult thing for me to do, because of my relationship with Luke, because of what I think of him as a person and because we get on so well,” McGinley said yesterday, having announced Westwood, Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher as his three captain’s picks for the September 26-28 matches with the United States.
“So many emotions we’ve shared together in extreme situations like Ryder Cups. His very first Ryder Cup, the first six holes he played, he didn’t hit a shot. I was his partner, he was shot with nerves and he came through.
“We were all square playing the 18th, I drove it in the rough and he hit a 2-iron middle of the fairway, onto the middle of the green, when we really needed him to earn a half point.
“When you have that kind of experience with somebody you never forget it and you have a connection and a bond them.
“I have a very, very strong bond and feeling with Luke and when I see him the next time it’s going to be tough.”
Westwood, 41, is ranked six places lower in the world rankings than No.30 Donald and finished the European team qualification process five places behind his fellow former world number one.
Yet McGinley had seen enough during August to suggest Westwood deserved a ninth straight appearance on a European team.
“There were a number of things. As I say, it was a very close call. Ultimately, that little burst of form Lee showed around US PGA time and at Firestone (in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) was a flourish that Luke wasn’t able to show. Ultimately that’s what it came down to, that’s how close it was. The fact there were some mid-60s form there and there were some decent finishing positions on the back of four missed cuts in a row. I told him through the media that I needed to see some form from him, that he wasn’t going to get in on past form alone, and he stepped up to the plate and produced. Luke played very well and very consistently but he didn’t have those green shoots of real form that I saw from Lee and that was the short head that decided it.”
After an injury-hit campaign, Poulter is slowly flickering into life on cue for his biennial transformation into a Ryder Cup superhero.
“I’m very, very proud to be a pick and I just can’t wait to get there,” Poulter said. “Ryder Cup means a lot to me and I guarantee I’ll be ready to perform to my best.”
Scotsman Gallacher had shown McGinley he had what it took to withstand the pressure of being a Ryder Cup rookie on home soil, by battling back from the brink of a missed cut at the Italian Open to coming within a putt at the 18th of making the team on merit with a final-round 65. A win or second place would have secured that spot but although he finished third, McGinley ensured he would be at Gleneagles, the hometown hero.
Gallacher declared: “To know that when I had to deliver and do it and I’ve done it is just satisfaction for me.”
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