McGinley has one eye on Cup final

Four years on from sinking the putt that won the Ryder Cup Paul McGinley is delighted to be back at The Belfry this week for the Quinn Direct British Masters.

But that does not change the fact that when Saturday comes the 39-year-old Dubliner might well be seen fleeing the place as quickly as he can.

West Ham fan McGinley and Liverpool supporters Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn have laid plans to charter a helicopter so that they can get to the FA Cup final in Cardiff.

And a decision taken weeks ago could enable them to see the whole match.

The third round of the £1.8m tournament – the European tour’s first stop in Britain this season – is scheduled to finish at 2.30pm so that spectators can watch the final half an hour later on a giant screen.

“I didn’t have a say in the tee-off times,” said McGinley.

“It was a BBC decision and it was made well before West Ham got into the final. As a West Ham fan you don’t make plans before they actually get there!”

He has been told the helicopter flight is 25 minutes and added: “We can’t make a decision until Friday night when we see who is playing early and who is playing late.

“We have tickets, we’re planning on going, but we’ll just have to see how the week pans out.

“We’d like to go, but the major thing is the golf. There’s a lot of money at stake and that’s the first priority – the match is very much secondary.”

But it is not just to support his side that McGinley would love to be at the Millennium Stadium.

He said: “As a sportsman the main reason I want to go is to be part of a ig atmosphere. I got an adrenaline rush at the semi-finals.

“To be in the middle of the West Ham fans you can see the passion and emotion in their faces. I can relate to how people feel in the Ryder Cup situation, whatever the case may be.

“I love that passion, that commitment. That’s what sport is all about.”

Clarke does not expect to have much difficulty getting to the game on time.

After what he called a “terrible” round in the pro-am the Ulsterman commented: “I don’t think there’s much chance of me making the cut. I’ll definitely be at the cup final.”

The NI man’s last competitive round was an opening 68 that left him only two shots off the lead at the Houston Open three weeks ago.

He flew home to be with his wife Heather in her continuing fight against cancer and he has hardly touched a club since.

Although he was part of the winning Ryder Cup side in 2002 – and with Bjorn combined for a stunning better-ball 62 against Tiger Woods and Paul Azinger - Clarke gives the impression of being no lover of The Belfry either.

For him the switch of the tournament from the nearby Forest of Arden was not great news. He won two English Opens there.

Nine of the side from four years ago are on view this week, but far from being a trip down memory lane the focus is on the race for places in this September’s side.

McGinley lies seventh, just behind David Howell, who is even rustier than Clarke after spending the past month recovering from a lower back problem.

Paul Broadhurst, Nick Dougherty and Paul Casey – like table-topper Henrik Stenson a past winner at The Belfry – currently occupy the last three automatic spots, but there is still the best part of four months still to go and a lot can change yet.

Many of the central characters have been paired together for the opening two rounds.

Colin Montgomerie, fourth in the standings, plays with McGinley and Stenson, just behind Broadhurst and Casey and just ahead of Howell, Clarke and their 2004 team-mate Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Bjorn begins the defence of the title he won last year – after a play-off with Howell and Brian Davis – in the company of Lee Westwood, just ahead of Padraig Harrington and Dougherty, who have US Open champion Michael Campbell as the third member of their group.

Westwood and Harrington have some catching up to do to gain automatic selection and only last week captain Ian Woosnam was saying they “have to start making a move really“.

The pair have not begun the season the way they wanted in America, but are back now to try to put things right. And Woosnam will be a very happy man if they do.