ABU DHABI: The European Tour may change the way future Ryder Cup captains are chosen after an often “unseemly” campaign ended this week with Paul McGinley being picked to lead the 2014 team, said chief executive George O’Grady.
McGinley’s appointment on Tuesday as the first Irish skipper in the 86-year history of the event came at the end of a campaign during which golfing politics came to the fore.
“It was never meant to be a campaigning business,” O’Grady said in an interview on the eve of the $2.7m Abu Dhabi Championship.
“That will probably have to be looked at in the cold light of day but the world has changed with all this twittering.
“I think personally one person should be invited to become captain and there should be no losers. There should be a view that this is the right guy at the right time because it can all be a little unseemly,” he added yesterday.
Ten members of the 15-man Players Committee, chaired by Dane Thomas Bjorn, debated the respective merits of McGinley, 2010 skipper Colin Montgomerie, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Paul Lawrie and Sandy Lyle at a meeting before plumping for the Irishman.
“In the end, with all the talk in the social media and the newspapers in the run-up, it was a triumph for democracy,” added O’Grady.
“It was done very well. The decision was taken by the committee, it was a unanimous decision but it was more a consensus of everybody’s feelings.
“I think to have a guy announced as captain and to have the world number one (Rory McIlroy) coming in at the back of the room to show his support gives you great confidence,” said O’Grady. REUTERS
