McGinley moves up in Ryder Cup race

Hard though it might be to believe, Paul McGinley has moved up a place in Europe’s Ryder Cup table despite not playing in the US PGA championship.

The Dubliner pulled out of the final major of the season to attend the funeral of Darren Clarke’s wife Heather, but he will go into the last two weeks of the race in ninth place instead of 10th.

Jose Maria Olazabal’s poor performance in Chicago is the reason why. The Spaniard had been third of the five who qualify off the table based on world ranking points, but by finishing only 55th has now been overtaken by Henrik Stenson, Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia.

Olazabal therefore switches to the separate list based on European Order of Merit points and he is just behind McGinley on that.