The European Tour has taken a step to shore up a ship that isn’t leaking, naming 2014 Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley as a strategic adviser to the European Ryder Cup team.
McGinley, 57, has been an integral part of the biennial matches since playing in his first in 2002 at The Belfry and converting a 10-footer on the 18th hole to clinch the cup for Europe.
Since that winning putt, McGinley played in two more winning Ryder Cup matches in 2004 and 2006, but his biggest contribution to Europe’s dominance, winning eight of the last 11 matches, was his movement from a subjective process to using analytics extensively in all aspects of his captaincy.
In his lone captaincy at Gleneagles, Europe dominated 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 and forced the PGA of America and the USA Team to create a task force to address the American team’s inadequacies.
Europe captain Paul McGinley celebrates winning the Ryder Cup at the Gleneagles Hotel on September 28, 2014, in Auchterarder, Scotland.
Jamie Squire / Getty Images
Current European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald named McGinley to his new position partly because of his approach at Gleneagles.
“I might not have been at Gleneagles in 2014, but I know what an amazing job Paul did,” Donald said. “He redefined a lot of the Ryder Cup captain’s role with his meticulous approach to it, and I feel every captain since 2014 has benefited in some way from what he achieved at Gleneagles.”
McGinley sees his role as twofold: acting as a sounding board for Donald and his vice captains and serving as a link between Donald and the Ryder Cup advisory committee, of which McGinley is a member.
“It is clear we have built a very strong template for winning at home in Ryder Cups, but I see my job as helping Luke, his vice captains and his backroom team to look at an away match differently to how we’ve looked at it before,” McGinley said.
Last month, the PGA of America created a new position, team manager of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and named former caddie and current television announcer John Wood to the position.
The next Ryder Cup match is scheduled for the Black Course at Bethpage in September 2025.