ABU DHABI: New Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley plans to commemorate the late Seve Ballesteros and pay a special tribute to the ‘Home of Golf’ when he leads holders Europe against the United States at Gleneagles next year.
“I can assure all of the people in Scotland that I’ll have very much a Scottish theme to what I’m going to do at Gleneagles,” the 46-year-old Irishman told reporters ahead of this week’s Abu Dhabi Championship.
“I would also like to have a Seve theme to what we are going to do. One of the things I want to do as captain is continue the Seve legacy.
“I don’t know how I’m going to go about that yet. I’ll leave that for discussions later but I will be continuing that legacy,” said McGinley after being appointed the first Irish skipper in Ryder Cup history on Tuesday.
Ballesteros, who died in 2011 at the age of 54 after a long battle with brain cancer, was one of Europe’s most inspirational performers in the biennial team competition.
The Spaniard compiled an impressive 20-12-5 record as a player and formed an outstanding partnership with fellow countryman Jose Maria Olazabal.
Ballesteros also played an indirect role in McGinley’s appointment as Olazabal’s successor as Ryder Cup skipper as it was in his Seve Trophy event that the Irishman first cut his captaincy teeth.
McGinley led Britain and Ireland to Seve Trophy victories over Continental Europe in 2009 and 2011 and he said team golf had always brought out something extra in him.
“I certainly went to another level when I played in team golf,” said the Irishman.
“I wish I could have been the same as an individual,” added four-times European Tour winner McGinley. “Gaelic football is where I started and I think that’s where it comes from, being part of a team, being in a dressing room.
“My heart ticks a bit faster and my adrenaline goes more and I just love the environment of being in a team. In the Ryder Cup I love the team meetings, the pageantry, everything about it,” he added yesterday. REUTERS
