McGinley: USA can show teeth without Tiger

Ryder Cup hero Paul McGinley believes the absence of Tiger Woods could actually make the American team a stronger unit when they face Europe this month.

The world’s best player will miss the match at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky from September 19 to 21 after ruling himself out until the New Year as he recovers from knee surgery.

But Irishman McGinley, who sank the winning putt for Europe at The Belfry in 2002, expects Paul Azinger’s side to come out all the more determined to make an impression without their star name.

“I think it’s going to pull them together and put everyone in their team on a level playing pitch.

“Not to have Tiger, it will be just the team and I don’t think it’s going to hurt them at all,” said McGinley, who has failed to make Nick Faldo’s 2008 European side after playing a big part in three successive Ryder Cup victories.

Azinger’s selection of Ryder Cup rookie JB Holmes as one of his four wild cards, along with two other first-timers – Steve Stricker and Hunter Mahan, and the experienced Chad Campbell came as no surprise to McGinley.

“Holmes is a Kentucky boy and he and Kenny Perry will, I think, be paired together, at least in one of the matches.

“It’s probably more interesting to see what he’s done than what Faldo did because the picks were not quite as clear as the European picks,” said McGinley, who believes Azinger needs all the options provided by his option of four wild card choices if the USA are to turn the tables and end the recent domination of the European golfers.

“The Americans have had to do something because they’ve got thrashed the last two times by record amounts,” he said at a Sure for Men coaching day at Wentworth.

But McGinley insisted he is happy Faldo only had two picks – even though he disagreed with the captain’s decision to prefer Ian Poulter to Darren Clarke, a choice he described as “surprising”.

Despite that, McGinley said: “Our system, whatever you say about it, we’ve won by record margins. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, that’s my view.

“The system we have is obviously working so let’s keep doing it.”

McGinley, hoping to fight his way back into the team when the Americans visit Wales in two years’ time, expects Englishman Lee Westwood and Spaniard Sergio Garcia to be the two key players for Europe once again.

“The success of our last Ryder Cups has been based on particularly Lee and Sergio playing extremely well.

“I expect them to play well again, lead from the front and win a large majority of our points.

“If we are to win this Ryder Cup we need our top players to play well, which they have been doing in previous Ryder Cups,” said McGinley, who anticipates another European victory.

“I don’t think it will be another thrashing but I think we’ll win,” he added.