Respect. That's what Paul McGinley earned from his peers for his impressive Vivendi Trophy captaincy in Paris last weekend. 

"In all of the success I've had in previous things I've done, it's amazing how many people have said nice things this week," he said at the Alfred Dunhill Link, where he is just three shots behind Rory McIlroy, Michael Hoey and Richie Ramsay at halfway. "The coverage must have been incredible. The whole world seems to have been watching it."

Captain Fantastic Paul McGinley confessed he’s been inspired by his Vivendi Trophy young guns to try and make next year’s Ryder Cup team.

The Dubliner’s brilliant leadership in Paris has made him the red-hot favourite to become the first Irishman to captain a Ryder Cup side at Gleneagles in 2014.

But the three-time Ryder Cup winner isn’t ready to hang up his spikes and while he turns 43 in December, he'd love to join the likes of Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Chris Wood in Colin Montgomerie’s 2010 side.

Wishful thinking by a player past his prime or a declaration of intent by a very determined man? Probably a bit of both.

Rory McIlroy took the biggest scalp of his career so far when he beat world No 5 Henrik Stenson to help GB&I to a 16.5-11.5 win over Continental Europe in the Vivendi Trophy.

At the start of this year, McIlroy lost to the world No 8 and eventual champion Geoff Ogilvy in the quarter-finals of the Accenture Match Play in Tucson.

How far he has come in such a short space of time.

Paul McGinley is playing a blinder as Britain and Ireland captain at the Vivendi Trophy in Paris. So far, he's inspired a weaker team to lead Europe 6-4 after two days of foursomes.

He's left no stone unturned, as the saying goes. And no cliché unused, no matter how much he abhors them.

"To win again today was great, to be over 3-2 up, 6-4 overall; as a footballer would say, we are over the moon."

Never mind Monty on Poulter. Spanish golfer Gonzalo Fernandez Castaño sent the Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero a pointed political message during the opening day of the Vivendi Trophy in Paris. 

Paul McGinley scored an early win over counterpart Thomas Bjorn with some inspired pairings and timely advice as his Britain and Ireland side took a 3-2 lead over the Continentals in the Vivendi Trophy.

McGinley put his best foot forward in ParisBjorn lamented the fact that his thoroughbred side was not ready when the gun went after an early morning arrival for the opening ceremony threw his men out of their usual routine.

Paul McGinley has described Seve Ballesteros as the Elvis Presley of golf

Speaking in Dublin recently McGinley said: "He means the same to me as he means to everybody. Growing up as a kid, watching him in the Irish Opens at Royal Dublin and Portmarnock, Seve was the one. He was the Elvis Presley of golf back then.

"It was a different world back then because we didn’t have golf on TV like we do nowadays and when you saw a superstar it had a different effect to seeing Tiger Woods now because you see Tiger every week on TV. It was a different era where you saw only half a dozen tournaments a year on TV. People look back at the Irish Open and think about it in the rose-tinted glasses kind of way. A lot of  it was because golf and sport wasn’t exposed the way it is now."

Rory McIlroy is backing pal Paul McGinley for the 2014 Ryder Cup captaincy.

Rory in action The odd couple Irish pair will team up for the first time with skipper McGinley banking on McIlroy to lead from the front when Britain and Ireland clash with the Continentals for the Vivendi Trophy this week.

And while McIlroy has yet to see the Dubliner’s captaincy skills up close, he is convinced that the three-time Ryder Cup hero is the ideal man to lead Europe at Gleneagles in five years’ time.

The official release says that captains Thomas Björn and Paul McGinley have announced strong teams for the Vivendi Trophy with Seve Ballesteros, with 12 players from the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking competing at Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche Golf Club in Paris from September 24-27.

McGinley and McDowell at the Royal TrophyThe reality is that McGinley faces an uphill task following the withdrawal or unavailability of most of his top names. He'll have eight Englishmen and two Irishmen at his disposal but he's short on firepower.

The score before the start - Continental Europe 8, Great Britain and Ireland 4.

Peter Lawrie has no regrets about putting his family ahead of a place in Paul McGinley's Vivendi Trophy side.

One out of three ain't badThe Dubliner missed out on a trip to Paris by just €15,210 when he opted to skip last week's Mercedes Benz Championship to be with his wife and new born baby daughter. As a result, he was leapfrogged in the rankings by England's Anthony Wall.