European Tour Allowed McGinley To Influence Tourney Groupings

Many admire Captain Paul McGinley's attention to detail but does there become an eye-roll, oy-vey, get-a-life, winning isn't everything moment?

After reading Doug Ferguson's story about the European Tour allowing the captain to control early round pairings to help players from say, Team Lake Nona, get to know those playing the actual European Tour, is, a tad excessive.

Graeme McDowell and Victor Dubuisson playing together in the French Open was no accident.

McGinley wanted them for foursomes at Gleneagles, and they wound up winning both their matches.

"I was able to get Victor and Graeme on the same page," he said. "I controlled the draws on the European Tour during the summer, and every time Graeme came to play in Europe, he played with Victor. They didn't know what I was planning, but I had planned that they would be partners."

Comments

[thegoldenbeer]

That's what Phil called a game plan.

[Xiruluca]

What a shame! That is unbelievable. I really feel that a limit has to be set on how much a captain should interfere in order to prepare a game plan.

In the USA team case, it’s a lower limit and it should be raised…

[easy 3 putt]

well done, captain mcginley.

[easy 3 putt]

and:

the us tour set up tournament pairings for higher tv ratings, europe for a higher ryder cup victory…;-)

[highside]

O Fer Chrisakes. This is beyond ridiculous. My eight year old daughter could have coached that European team to victory over that US team. The Europeans always win these days--why is McGinley some special case? Also, you really have to laugh at the fools claiming Watson has somehow damaged his legacy. Jack Nicklaus lost a Ryder Cup at Murfield and I don't recall anyone ever mentioning any effect on his reputation as a champion. Why? Because it has none. EARTH TO EUROPEANS!: The Ryder Cup is a very nice tournament. The winning team has bragging rights for about a week. Then the result is buried in the sand trap of time. Open a golf book 100 years from now, and there will be a picture of Tom Watson. Paul McGinley will be nowhere to be found.

[Aditya]

Game plan, indeed! It also shows McGinley's penchant for meticulous detail, collaboration and team work -- right from Day 1 till D-Day.

In Wales Open, Westy was paired with Donaldson. No surprises here too.

Well done!

[HB]

It seems like McGinley is a fan of the late, great, Jack Palance, and his "one thing" was RC captaincy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml-xI1jbu_U

Does the meticulousness show that he thinks winning is everything or has it out of proportion? No, it doesn't show that he cares about winning more than TW. It shows that he cared about details, and about the players knowing and liking each other. So far, so conscientious and humble. And the Euro tour would have paired the Ryder Cup team together anyway. So thankyou, Paul. Enjoy the corporate motivation days and "leadership consultancy" revenue. And, if you want people to like you, give the credit to the players and then SHUT UP!

[Josh]

Monty's leadership ebook has a chapter called " Preparation Squared equals Success ".

Looks like Paul read it a few times.

[tlavin]

McGinley is a genius. Watson is a moron. Image Building vs Reputation Wrecking. Both are fairly overstated, dontcha think???

[Pro from Dover]

@ tlavin

Thank you.

[Sir Shanks Alot]

"Also, you really have to laugh at the fools claiming Watson has somehow damaged his legacy. Jack Nicklaus lost a Ryder Cup at Murfield and I don't recall anyone ever mentioning any effect on his reputation as a champion."

Maybe not his legacy, but certainly Tom Watson's reputation has been damaged. It's not the losing part that matters, it's that Watson showed to the world that he has major flaws, that he is nothing more than a dumb jock, a tyrant of a manager, a poor manager of people, and, getting back to Tom's legacy, that his first Ryder Cup victory was just dumb luck as Zinger stated in his book or somewhere.

Congratulations to Paul McGinley, an outstanding Ryder Cup captain for Europe in 2014, and more importantly in direct contrast to Tom Watson, an outstanding human being.

[RickABQ]

At this level, when both teams are essentially identical in overall skill (and they are, as they both have guys who are in the top 50 in a world of ~7.2 billion residents) then preparation to details and execution of a well-thought out game plan will almost always make the difference between winning and losing.

And so yes, Judge, McG is s genius and Watson is a moron. When it came to their job of being RC captain. Hal Sutton should move over - there is a new sheriff of awesome badness in town, and he goes by the name of Old TW.

[Stanley Thompson]

Phil flies over by himself and then flies home by himself.
In the meantime he craps publicly all over his captain.
Great teamwork!!!

[ol Harv]

We don't even allow "rigged up" pairings in our club championship or city championship...smart? Aye. But makes you start wondering what other type of "manipulation" is going on behind the scenes.

[nguyenvuminh]

"...but does there become an eye-roll, oy-vey, get-a-life, winning isn't everything moment?" - Maybe but the open display of disregard for your leading player's involvement and your leading player's throwing the captain under the bus sure makes it look like winning would have solved everything for the US doesn't it? So complain all you want about how seriously Europeans are taking this but this is the type of "hearts and minds" that the US team and captain seem to lack.

[Easingwold]

Highside, no one here will open a book in one hundred years, but we will remember this Ryder Cup for at least two more years, until the next one where I hope we make it four in a row.

[Sir Shanks Alot]

"Hal Sutton should move over - there is a new sheriff of awesome badness in town, and he goes by the name of Old TW." -- @RickABQ

Well said by a fellow Sutton hater. My triumvirate of USA Ryder Cup captain shame is Hal Sutton's paring of Tiger and Phil, his jack-ass cowboy hat, and his almost everything else; DL3's picks of Furyck and Stricker; and now Tom Watson for sitting Speith and Reed and his almost everything else.

As a side note, I can imagine Tom Watson saying to himself early on that he wouldn't make the mistake of picking Furyck as DL3 did and then saying to himself later on, "Oh hell no, Furyk made the team and I'm stuck with him."

[Rose]

It was McGinley's opportunity to carry on a winning tradition. Why would anyone criticize him for being too well prepared. I question whether the tour event pairings actually make a big difference but give the guy credit for thinking about ways to give his team the best chance at success. That the US appears to have had, at best, an ad hoc strategy (especially when dealing with Phil) tell you exactly why it got its ass kicked yet again.

[Ted B. (Charging Rhino)]

Seems perfectly reasonable to use regular tour events to make sure that potential RC team-members get to know each-other, and to see how they gel-togther and their playing compatibility. Especially for the Euros where their potential RC Team members play on different tours much of the year.

"Manipulation"? The Tournament competition committees are always tinkering with the pairings for TV ratings or local affiliations...or petty reasons like their names rhyme.

[DTF]

Can you imagine all the jingoistic whinging had Tom Finchem had allowed this sort of thing to occur on the PGA Tour?!?

[Tighthead]

Sir Shanks - I thought you were giving the whole triumverate to Halimony.

[highside]

Because the Europeans have had so much recent success, they are now--perhaps unknowingly--engaged in a campaign of propaganda to convince the world (and perhaps themselves) that the Ryder Cup is the most important event in Golf. So the smallest minutia becomes massively important to the narrative of "the lads" success. Paul McGinley, little more than a European tour journeyman, manages to hold the reigns while a group of thoroughbreds beats a hapless American team, and suddenly he's the second coming of Mahatma Gandhi.

[Jim Brown]

If Watson had shown this type of leadership the Americans would have made a movie about his awe shucks genius. The US Open had fat people groups. The European tour had Ryder Cup groups. It's called smart. Excuses are for losers.

[highside]

Tom Watson could have won this Ryder Cup with Europe's players.

[Easingwold]

Highside, the Ryder cup is the most watched golfing event in the world, ( 3rd most watched sporting event ) it's massive, important to golf in general, never mind the Eruopean tour. And if more people watch golf and take up the game because of the Ryder cup, that's a great thing. Your attempts to belittle the event shows how annoyed/upset you are that Americans keep on losing.

McGinley isn't the greatest tour pro ever but he was one of the greatest captains ever. Accept it, in golf, lose like a gentleman.

[ol Harv]

Run of the mill PGA Tour player:
"Hey, how come Phil keeps getting paired with Rickie and Keegan every tournament? That's not fair."

"Well, we all have to sacrifice a little here so we can prepare for the Ryder Cup."

"But I want to play with Rickie and Jason and Jordan"

Yeah, great idea. Give the elite players even more priviledges. I'm sure the PGA Tour can't wait for that call from the PGA of America.

[highside]

McGinley's contribution was meaningless. Does anyone honestly doubt Tom Watson could have coached the Europeans to victory? McGinley was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. That's just a fact.

[Easingwold]

That's like saying captains make no difference at all, including Jacklin, Olazabal or James, Faldo. Or Azinger or Sutton.
You saying these captains made no difference, good or bad ?

[V60drivergolfer]

The biggest joke of a comment by anyone. Phil flying over by himself damaged the USA team spirit. LOL. Really? This is the absurd comment of the year. SO Phil sits next to Jim Furyk and has some peanuts and a coke, and somehow this will make or break the Ryder Cup!!!

[JJ]

With the exception of deciding who sits and Friday and Saturday, the most obvious and visible input by the Captain is choosing the clothing. Anyone care to comment on whether Europe has won that battle over the past 20 years?

[Peter Norrie]

If Tom Watson had decided to hang around for another week, I'm sure the organisers at the Dunhill event would have been happy to pair him with Paul McGinley - that would have been worth watching.

It's a pity some of the younger Americans didn't take the opportunity the play At. Andrews, Carnoustie & Kingsbarns - a experience that could be valuable in years to come. But to be fair, I suppose Ricky has already seen more than enough of Rory this year!

[ol Harv]

So V60, I assume you're on the side of Phil bringing it up in the press conference was cool and Tom Watson was the worst captain in the history of the RC. Fine. So all I'm hearing is that TW did a horrible job of team building and the POD system is great because of the team building. So wouldn't the first thing a strong "team" do is travel together? Would Captain Azinger have approved of the solo flyover? Would it be OK if someone on the team didn't want to go to one of the ridiculous gala events during the week? Be a team but do what you want! Kind of like Al Davis--"just win baby" against John Wooden or another big-name great coach where no individual is bigger than the team.

[highside]

When continental Europe joined the party, and the Europeans finally began to win, they naturally took a greater interest in the event. Winning obviously feels good. But the Europeans have taken this natural urge to its ridiculous extreme, and want the Ryder Cup to mean something monumental. They need it to be the biggest tournament on earth, a revelation of European golf supremacy, even a commentary on American culture. The whole thing has become so overwrought that a schlubby middle manager type like Paul McGinley (or a redneck idiot like Paul Azinger!) are manufactured after the fact into LEADERS OF MEN, when all they reall did was hold a clipboard.

[Rose]

@highside - that schlubby middle manager has some achievements to his credit that are worthy of respect. You think Watson could have won with McGinley's team? Maybe so. Even money says McGinley would have beaten Watson had he captained the American team.

[Neal Walk]

"Even money says McGinley would have beaten Watson had he captained the American team."

Do yourself a favor Rose, stay away from any NFL gambling.

[highside]

@Rose

Look at it this way, if Faldo had made the same moves at Valhalla and WON, every golf fan in Europe would have spent the next 6 weeks recounting the brilliance of his wardobe choices.

[munihack]

As the details bleed out the devil will be exposed. The reality is the Euros just refine what has been working and the U.S. starts from scratch with the new captains "approach". Then American fans complain the players need to "play better". Rinse and repeat. Finally an experienxed player who has observed this joke on the the inside is asked to compare 08 and other editions of this overhyped exhibition. He complies with a detailed summary of approaches and results. Then the American fans complain the players need to "play better". Golf analysts and stat people have all this evidence in the record that the Euros are consistently winning the holes, matches and matchups that matter over the last 20 years. They point to the player pairings and the "choke " factor on 18 etc. They all conclude the U.S. isn't doing what it needs to optimize the talent of the team in a TEAM competition. The American fans complain the players need to "play better". At this rate the only time Americans will see the RC is if they travel to Europe...

[Peter Norrie]

@ Highside I think you're wrong - when the Europeans started winning, the Americans started taking it seriously and the fact that they haven't worked out how to win has caused much angst, as can be seen by the comments on this blog.

Whether you like it or not, Easingwold is correct. The Ryder Cup has become a massive, worldwide sporting event and from a financial point of view, hugely important to the European Tour and the PGA of America.

[highside]

@Peter Norrie

Respectfully...no. Which has side has more to gain from Ryder Cup success? The Nation with the largest, most properous tour? The nation where three of 4 majors are staged? The nation with an entire television network devoted to the game? I think not. Europe NEEDS the Ryder cup to be something more than just a golf tournamnet. Which may explain their recent success.

[Rose]

I know Neal. I'm just engaging in a little hyberbole. I was think about Bum Phillips' comment on Shula and how he could "beat you with his'un and then turnaround and beat you with your'un"