Goodbye McGinley, hello European young guns

Chubby Chandler publicly said goodbye to Paul McGinley in his weekly column on the ISM website, confirming a split made public several weeks ago.

After 19 years with International Sports Management, the Dubliner will look after all his own affairs from now on, though the ISM boss did add that they would remain in touch through common business interests:

We’re more used to welcoming people to ISM than saying goodbye, but today it’s not the case as an era comes to an end with Paul McGinley heading for his own brave, new world.

It’s been 19 years since Paul first jumped aboard and he has had a distinguished career in Europe the highlight being holing the putt that sank America in the Ryder Cup at The Belfry in 2002.

Paul’s tournament wins perhaps do not fully illustrate the depth of his talent, but he has been a fantastic supporter of the European Tour and I am sure plenty more will be heard from him in the next few years.

The Dubliner has always had acute business acumen and those talents will come to the fore now that he is the captain of his own ship….

ISM has expanded considerably over the past decade and the company is making a concerted effort to look less British by signing some interesting talent from continental Europe.

Joost Luiten from the Netherlands is now on the books alongside recent Q-School graduates Romain Wattel and Alexandre Kaleka of France, Spain’s Borja Etchart and England’s Steven Tiley.

As Chandler points out in his column:

The surnames of those players demonstrating that the I in ISM does indeed stand for international.

The fact that ISM has not signed an Irish player since Rory McIlroy indicates that either the best talent is being snapped up by rival companies or that Ireland simply isn’t producing the players who will be charged with following in the footsteps of the McGinleys, Darren Clarkes and Padraig Harringtons of the game.