On-form McGinley has hunger for success

Paul McGinley shot a four under par 68 put him in the hunt for the Diageo Championship at Gleneagles.

McGinley need never hit another golf ball to be remembered as a Ryder Cup hero – but he wants more than that.

“I think there is a big difference in the quality of player who has played one Ryder Cup and a player who has played at least two,” said the Dubliner today after a four under par 68 put him in the hunt for the Diageo Championship at Gleneagles.

“That is one of my goals – I definitely want to play another.

“To qualify for the team is very difficult and if you make the team because of a hot year then fine, but I think that if you get into the team twice then it shows that it’s more than just a hot year.

“It’s quality over a period of time.”

McGinley has not won since that 10-foot putt at The Belfry two years ago, although that has nothing to do with being engulfed by his team-mates and thrown in the lake.

The 37-year-old had only three top 10 finishes last season and then in March, after being runner-up to Mark O’Meara at the Dubai Desert Classic, developed a problem with his right knee that eventually required surgery.

“It was a mess really,” he commented. “I had torn cartilage, some chipped bone and ligament damage.

“I should have gone to see a specialist right away, but played on for three weeks (missing every cut) and then got a scan. The operation was that day.

“I went five weeks without hitting a shot and while it hasn’t affected my golf since I came back it is affecting my preparation. I can’t practise as much as I would like.”

He is 17th in the race for places for September’s side, but would leap to eighth by winning this week in the absence of most of the tour’s big names, away preparing for a US Open which he has to sit out.

“It’s going to be tough this year because there are so many good players around, but it’s all about quality.

“If I play well enough I’ll make it, if I don’t I won’t. As simple as that.”

Six birdies on the course where the 2010 Ryder Cup will take place helped McGinley tuck in just a stroke behind England’s Miles Tunnicliff and Australian Nick O’Hern.

That was before a violent thunderstorm flooded fairways and greens in mid-afternoon, with some players, Colin Montgomerie most notably, complaining that the lightning was dangerously close when play was suspended.

O’Hern’s year was interrupted by a twisted knee soon after it began, but while it has healed the consequences are still being felt.

The 32-year-old from Perth pulled out of the British Open championship qualifier in Melbourne, only to be told by the Royal and Ancient Club that he could not switch to a later one.

“Very strange and a bit bizarre,” is his reaction to that.

“I’m not sure what their reasoning was, but I’ve just got to take it on the chin.”

Barred even from the final qualifying competition the week before the British Open, O’Hern has to earn a exemption instead – either by being the leading non-exempt player in the European Open or Scottish Open, or by being in the top two of a mini-Order of Merit currently in progress.