McGinley says Europe's "away template needs to be reassessed"
Paul McGinley
Paul McGinley believes Padraig Harrington may have to dream up a new away strategy if he's named Ryder Cup captain for Whistling Straits in 2020.
Rory McIlroy, Thomas Bjorn, Luke Donald and Graeme McDowell have all backed Harrington as a future captain, and while McGinley will be part of the selection process, he believes the new man will need a cunning plan to avoid suffering on US soil.
"We need to dream up how to play these away Ryder Cups, so no better man for that kind of challenge than Pádraig," McGinley said. "The away template needs to be reassessed, and if he's going to be captain, I don't want to second-guess him, he's going to have his ideas."
Harrington’s appointment looks a formality after he admitted on Tuesday that the players want him to do the job in the US after six playing appearances and three vice-captaincies.
“There’s no doubt that you’ve a better chance at home," Harrington told Newstalk. "You get more involved at home, you’ve no say when it’s away. But saying that, I think the guys in the team would like continuity."
McGinley joins Harrington, Shane Lowry, Paul Dunne, Robin Dawson, Michael Hoey and Graeme McDowell in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship today.
And while agrees with Harrington's view that Whistling Straits has a European feel, he believes Europe needs change tack if they are to avoid a repeat of heavy defeats suffered by Darren Clarke at Hazeltine in 2016 or Nick Faldo at Valhalla in 2008.
"We were beaten pretty much from the time we lost the first session 4-0 at Hazeltine two years ago," he said. "So let's not think we're doing it all right and America's doing it all wrong.
"We have to dream up how we are going to win away from home. It's a long time since we won impressively away from home. I mean, the Miracle at Medinah was an absolute miracle. We got beaten badly in Valhalla in 2008.
"So the last time we were impressive away from home was Langer's captaincy at Oakland Hills in 2004. It would be great to put in a performance like that in two year's time.
"That's the bar for Pádraig if Pádraig is going to be captain. It's going to be incredibly difficult. It's an incredibly high bar.
"Imagine if we could put in a performance like Langer? That would be unbelievable because it's so much more difficult."
The Dubliner (51) tried to play down the euphoria in Europe following Sunday's 17.5-10.5 victory.
“We had a brilliant team and in form.” he said. “And they were perfect for that golf course. It was a dream week for [Thomas] and everything went so smooth. I know the first morning was tough, putting the four rookies out.
“But the last game of the morning was crucial (Molinari/Fleetwood beating Reed and Woods 3/1). If we had lost four-nil, and I don't care how good our team was in the afternoon, would have found it very hard to find a way back. We just had a great team and we had a lot of things in our favour.
“We are very good at positioning ourselves as underdogs against the might of America and any fuel that's out there we take it.
“When they lose, it shows in their body language. But you could say the same about our team in Hazeltine two years ago. We weren't on it. I don't think we ever looked like we were going to win. We lost the first session 4-nil. Let's not buy into this idea that we are doing it all right and they are doing it all wrong
"I think away from home, there's an argument that we should be doing better than we have been doing. Yes, we do great when we are at home, but we need to be a bit more on it away from home."
If Harrington gets the job, he will have to ensure he has an in-form team, as Bjorn did this year by increasing points by 50 percent for the last three months of the qualifying campaign.
"The qualification system Darren had in place was a 12-month system, and some of those players had qualified early," McGinley said. "By the time the Ryder Cup came around, their form had dissipated. That's what happened to Phil Mickelson.
"If this Ryder Cup was played five months ago, Mickelson would have been one of the stars.
"But his form was gone and was going to a course that didn't suit him. All the odds were against him, so I'd give him a bit of leeway there.
“Thomas for the last three months he gave 50 percent extra qualifying points and so we had a team in form which is a team we didn't have at Hazeltine. And we had home advantage and his picks were based around the exam. So we had two or three things in our favour and they turned out to be quite big.
"I didn't think Jim Furyk made a lot of bad moves. You could ask what Mickelson was doing in the foursomes, but his form in foursomes has been just as good as in the fourballs in the past.
"You can nitpick here and there, but the big thing was they didn't sit the exam very well. They kept missing fairways. You couldn't play that golf course from the rough."
