Paul McGinleyPaul McGinley was confirmed last night as the first Irish Captain of a European Ryder Cup team. The man who holed the winning putt in 2002 will take up his duties straight away and will take charge of the team on home soil at Gleneagles in Scotland in September 2014.
McGinley has been vice Captain for the past two Ryder Cups and was hailed as instrumental in Europe’s stunning comeback to retain the trophy in the USA last September.
He was certainly the players choice, as pre-decision support from Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and others made clear but in the final few days it appeared that Colin Montgomerie had also entered the frame. Darren Clarke’s withdrawal and subsequent comments that Europe needed a Captain to rival the stature of Tom Watson – who will lead the USA – seemed to have undone the McGinley bandwagon but in the end the committee of players that make the choice came down on the side of the Irishman.
This will be good news for the commercial partners that have been by his side in recent years when his playing results were not as strong as they once were.
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[ismember]Rolex and BMW are two of the big international brands that will likely leverage other relationships within the sport to good effect but there are others of more local nature that will see a big boost.
Allianz are involved across a wide range of sports from schools GAA to Paralympics and the National Leagues in Hurling and Football. They have had little exposure to golf up until now but are one of McGinley’s long time supporters.
Clubs to Hire is perhaps poised to make the greatest breakthrough. This company, friends of Sport for Business from the outset, offer golf clubs for hire at a number of overseas locations. The main focus in the early years has been to concentrate on the European market but this will lend weight to expansion towards the US market. McGinley is an investor and a director of the business which will be a real boost.
The captaincy will have a four year benefit, first in advance of Gleneagles and then looking back on it, as the tournament heads for Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minnesota in 2016.
Speaking after the news broke last night in Abu Dhabi, McGinley paid tribute to the Golfing Union of Ireland for putting the structures and the funding in place to bring on such a rich recent vein of Irish golfers onto the international stage.
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