From Rory McIlroy’s secrets to the impact of LIV Golf, victorious Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley gives his insight on all things professional golf. Now a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the European Tour group, McGinley has access to people and places in the sport that not many do. He tells us all.
Worldwide Golf: What did you make of your fellow countryman Shane Lowry’s win at the BMW PGA Championship?
Paul McGinley: I’m a great believer in trends and underlying statistics. I do it a lot when I’m working for TV and see the trend that these guys are on. There’s no doubt Shane Lowry has been on a brilliant trend this year, but it hadn’t cumulated in a win. I did tip him at the start of the week as I felt with his form around that golf course, and the fact that his game has gone to another level this year, he’d do well. It was no surprise to see him coming through. Still, he had to do it and he did it against two of the best players in the world in Rahm and McIlroy down the stretch. A lot of credit, another big title to go on his CV. Although he might not have won a huge number of tournaments, he’s won the big ones. He’s won a WGC, a Major and now he’s won our big flagship event in Europe. And of course, he won the Irish Open as an amateur which is no mean feat.
WWG: The tournament had just begun when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away –what was it like working for a broadcaster like Sky in those circumstances?
PM: It was definitely an eerie time for the media. I think Nick Dougherty – the presenter – as well as the producers, they had the biggest burden on them to get the right tone and to do the right things. All I had to do was turn up and be broadly briefed about what the protocols were. I think other people had much bigger burdens to carry than I did. It was 100 percent the right thing to do in carrying on the event. If the funeral had been over that weekend, I think that would have been a different story. It was a case of being respectful.
WWG: Reflecting on LIV Golfers in the BMW PGA Championship – do you still think those players shouldn’t have played? Or has your opinion changed?
PM: No. My opinion is clear. I think golfers are a collective. The DP World Tour is a collective. If you choose to leave the collective that’s your right and off you go. I don’t think you can play both sides here. I was very clear at the start and I still have that view. At the moment they can play because they won the injunction in the courts. They have a right to come back and play, that’s okay. The underlining feeling is – certainly from a lot of players I’ve spoken to and myself – it’s unfair to try and play both sides here. The correlation of saying they’ve always played the PGA Tour is not fair or correct because the PGA Tour did not go and compete in the European markets. We weren’t direct competitors the way that LIV have become. Another brand is being promoted by players playing in our events. We are ultimately a business and we have to protect our business.
WWG: What did you make of Sergio Garcia’s withdrawal at Wentworth after round one with no explanation?
PM: Players withdraw all the time. Particularly when there’s a delay like there was in unique circumstances. He’s been isolated and picked out because of the obvious connection to LIV that he has and how vocal he has been. Like most things in life it boils to lack of communication. If there had been better communicatio, the situation may not has escalated the way it did. By all accounts the communication was zero and that’s why he’s in the position he was and why he was judged so strongly.
WWG: It was another strong week for McIlroy at Wentworth. Do you think big things are on the horizon for Rory?
PM: If he stays in the mindset that he’s in now, yes. I think weaknesses about his game in the last ten years have been to do with dealing with the weight of expectation and the burden mentally. It’s a heavy load to carry all the time with the talent you are. Heir apparent of Tiger – the crown that he was given very early in his career – that’s a big weight of expectation on his shoulders. I think in some ways that affected his performance. The addition of Bob Rotella into his team has been a very, important one from that point of view in terms of perspective and dealing with the huge pressures that he plays under. Then the other one is Brad Faxon and what he’s done to his putting. He’s made his putting much more flowing and a lot more natural. It blends now with his long game which is very natural. I think what Brad has done is brought back the mindset, that mentality, that instinctiveness into his putting and I think the two of them have blended now. I always worry when there is something radical going on with a player’s game. Whether it be his putting, chipping, driving, swing or whether he’s changing something radically. That always is a worry for me, but the changes that Brad has made have not been radical. I think the tweaks mentally in dealing with the huge pressures that he’s under from Rotella. Those two things have brought him to different place as a player.
WWG: What are your early thoughts on the upcoming Ryder Cup for Europe?
PM: A lot depends on the next 12 months. You’re always looking for players to be playing well. You want them to find form in the next 12 months. If you look at the back bone of our team, you’ve got Fitzpatrick, Hovland, McIlroy and Rahm. Then you put in Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry. There are seven very strong players that any team would be happy to have. Then you’re looking for five more. That combination of five more are either guys like Francesco Molinari or Thomas Pieters returning to form who have played Ryder Cups in the past. Along with the young rookies coming through, that’s what we’re looking for as well. The young Scottish players or Danish players having a really good season. With six picks that Luke Donald has got it gives him a possibility of picking some guys with some good form on the DP World Tour over the next 12 months. I think Luke is a deep thinker, I’ve been speaking to him a little bit. He’s working hard behind the scenes. He’s very analytical and he will have all the ducks in a row. You’re looking for the players to step up to the plate, running into next September with a lot of momentum.
WWG: Are you excited about the upcoming changes to the DP World Tour schedule in 2024? Do you think it is a positive move?
PM: Yes, I do. I think like a lot of businesses in the world, alignments are good. We’re not different in golf. I think the two biggest tours in the world – the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour – coming together and finding common ground. Having this alignment that we have can only be good not just for American golf, but for international golf. That what’s we are certainly concerned about on the DP World Tour, that we have a strong schedule internationally. America’s always going to be strong. It’s a very wealthy market. There’s a lot of longstanding partners in place, whereas internationally it will be a little bit more challenging. That’s why working with the PGA Tour we can come up with a really, really strong international schedule. We’ve got a very strong swing of
tournaments in the Middle East. We want to improve on those and make them better, and then go a little bit more internationally too, including the Far East. Maybe Australia. But we must never forget our better home base in Europe. Not just tournaments like the BMW PGA Championship and Scottish Open, but the Irish Opens, the French Opens, the Danish Opens, the Swedish Opens. All of those tournaments, we’re looking to enhance them and fit them in to what would be a world schedule. We’ve got lots of ideas at the moment. Everything is up in the air.
WWG: How do you expect the golfing landscape to look in 10 years’ time, or is that too hard to predict right now?
PM: Oh boy, that’s so hard to predict. I can’t even predict what it’s going to look like in six months’ time. Who knows where LIV Golf is going to fit into the equation. I’m certainly not going to dismiss LIV as being irrelevant. We’ve got to give them a lot of respect for how far they’ve come and what their plans are for the future. Obviously, the huge amount of money that they’ve got to invest in it. Who knows how that is going to fit into the ecosystem there at the moment. But what we do have to do is – like any business that’s got competitors on the pitch – we have to make our business as strong as it can be. That’s what we are doing. We have to protect our business and one of them is protecting those who play in it. We feel that’s only fair and that’s only right. The second thing is to make our tournaments better and better so that the top players can make a choice to stay with the DP World Tour as a member. All the commitments that we’ve got from the top players already are going to continue over the next five years. They are continually going to play four events outside of Majors and WGCs. That’s been in place now for over ten years. Nothing has changed in that way. They are still giving that commitment and we are hoping to entice some of the PGA Tour players to come over to consider playing an extra four events on the DP World Tour in order to become members as well. We have all kinds of ideas up in the air and a lot of things have been discussed. It’s very political at the same time as well. We have to make sure we do things in the right way. The main thing for me as a board member is that we represent 500 people. As much as I might have one opinion on what’s best for the top players, I’ve got to marry that with what’s best for the collective. That’s what the tour is – it’s a collective of 500 people coming together and being represented by executives. That has got a value on it. We have to protect that value.
WWG: Do you still love playing the game and competing at a high level?
PM: Yes. I just wish I had more time to dedicate myself to playing. I still love to play more than anything else I do. I love my other business interests and the things that I’m doing as well. They’re all a lot of fun. But I still love playing more than anything else. Any chance I get to go out and practice I take it. Any chance I get to compete I take it. But I have a very busy schedule, managing so many different things in my life at the moment. My family’s growing up and going to University as well too, so being there to support them as well is a priority. I’ve got a lot of balls in the air. It’s trying to manage the whole situation.
