McGinley's Europe ready to deliver
If the Americans fail to come back from the dead today and win the Ryder Cup, they may well trot out the usual excuse about just not holing enough putts.
PGA of America Ted Bishop gave us a taster on Saturday night as he wandered out the sidedoor of the media centre, where Tom Watson had just explained how his team got "shellacked" by Europe in the foursomes and all but lost the Ryder Cup.
Spying the waiting McGinley as Watson ermerged having just explained how he'd made a ton of mistakes and worn out half his team and alientated the other half by giving two of his rookies the lead off roles for today's singles - Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed - Bishop said: "Your guys holed enough putts to stretch all the way across the Atlantic."
If Bishop still had USA shaved into the side of his head, it was hard to tell. He had his cap on. He certainly didn't look like a man who felt his team were going to "run the tables" as his captain had just insisted.
He didn't make McGinley an offer of the US job for 2016 either, which is a pity because the Dubliner is made for the role.
McGinley smiled politely at him but he looked absent becuse he was probably thinking ahead, not to yet another top quality press conference in which that revealed details of some of the motivational techniques being used to keep his team "on message" and the things he'd been saying to the players at the 9pm meeting.
The entire thing was summed up in a question about Ian Poulter, who had come to life late in the day to help Rory McIlroy get a half in the morning foursomes against Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker.
"Q. Would you have thought at the start of the week that you would have a 10-6 lead with Poulter only playing two matches; and secondly, was complacency one of your buzz words at the start of the week, and if it was, has the definition of complacency changed?"
McGinley scribbled on a piece of paper in front of him [he almost certainly wrote, 'Poulter']
"PAUL McGINLEY: No, the definition is the same. We all know what the word -- I'm just writing it down so I don't forget the first one. No, the definition has not changed, but complacency is a massive, massive word. You know, we have a very strong team here. We're playing at home. We have won seven of the last nine Ryder Cups. It's easy to be complacent. It's easy to just come off the edge. We have another huge, big graphic; huge, big graphic in our team room: "Passion has determined our past" -- Graeme McDowell holding the scales, and "attitude will determine our future." That's for complacency."
McGinley has been superb because he was prepared for all eventualities and if the US comes back to win today, it will be because they've played brilliantly in the singles.
it won't be easy for them with Europe spreading their rocks throughout the team.
"We've got a lot of really strong images in our team room, and photos that have messages on the bottom of them and have been kind of doctored in a way to highlight it. One particular one comes to mind is right outside our team room, it's a huge big one, probably two metres by three metres and it's a picture of a European rock in the middle of a raging storm in the ocean. The message underneath is: "We will be the rock when the storm arrives."
And the storm arrived this morning. The American Team came at us really strongly this morning, and we did incredibly well to get 1 1/2 points out. Then our wave came again this afternoon came out, fresh guys obviously performed and got the job done, as well, too. There's a lot of things and hopefully a lot of continuity in what the players are seeing this week."
Graeme McDowell leads Europe off. In soccer parlance, he's there to go in hard on Jordan Spieth.
"Big heart, big player, loves the big occasion. And for me, you need a fighter, a real fighter in that first game. That sets the tone for the day. That's the guy that goes in with the hard tackle... Graeme is that kind of guy. [Someone suggests Roy Keane] Not Roy Keane, not a dirty tackle (laughter)."
Sunday singles:
- 11.36 - Graeme McDowell vs. Jordan Spieth
- 11.48 - Henrik Stenson vs. Patrick Reed
- 12.00 - Rory McIlroy vs. Rickie Fowler
- 12.12 - Justin Rose vs. Hunter Mahan
- 12.24 - Stephen Gallacher vs. Phil Mickelson
- 12.36 - Martin Kaymer vs. Bubba Watson
- 12.48 - Thomas Bjorn vs. Matt Kuchar
- 13.00 - Sergio Garcia vs. Jim Furyk
- 13.12 - Ian Poulter vs. Webb Simpson
- 13.24 - Jamie Donaldson vs. Keegan Bradley
- 13.36 - Lee Westwood vs. Jimmy Walker
- 13.48 - Victor Dubuisson vs. Zach Johnson
