Eyes on the Prize: McGinley will have his eyes on maintaing his record Ryder Cup wins when he leads Team Europe in 2014 (Photo by Dan Perry, danperry.com, via Flickr Creative Commons)
Its been a very good week for Irish golf!
One of the major tournaments of the sport is the Ryder Cup, which pits golfers from Europe against the US. News has been spreading like wildfire that Paul McGinley has now been appointed the Ryder Cup team captain for Gleneagles in 2014.
McGinley has twenty two years experience under his belt and started to make a name for himself when he famously holed a 9 ft on the 18th hole of the 2002 Ryder Cup, a putt that won the tournament for Europe.
The Dubliner’s strengths are many. McGinley has won every Ryder cup he has contested and will be returning next year as captain to merge skill, experience and leadership, a task which even his competition thinks he’s perfect for. Captain of the US Ryder Cup team, Tom Watson, was quick to offer his congratulations:
Leadership is a vital skill. When The Wild Geese were faced with a difficult choice in 1691, they turned to Patrick Sarsfield to continue their cause, who was loved and admired by his troops. Through this love and admiration The Wild Geese achieved remarkable things.
Considering this, McGinley’s captaincy is not surprising. He received extraordinary support, especially from members of the Ryder Cup team itself. At the forefront was world number 1 Rory McIlroy:
McGinley has captained Rory McIlroy in the past at the Vivendi Seve Trophy in both 2009 and 2011 and he fully appreciates what this level of support has meant: