The crazy things that happen “at the pinnacle of world sport” are all that Paul McGinley fears as he heads to Gleneagles this weekend ahead of captaining Europe in the Ryder Cup.
The Irishman stopped at Celtic Manor, the site of the last home Ryder Cup in 2010, to have dinner with the four members of his team playing in the ISPS Handa Wales Open, which the skipper has organised for the course to be set up exactly like the PGA Centenary Course will be next week.
The meticulous preparation McGinley has undertaken for the matches is well known, and while he admitted he could “never say never” about being caught unprepared for something, the smart odds are that even the most miniscule and finite detail for next week’s matches has been checked and doublechecked.
With a team regarded almost universally as a heavy favourite, what could go wrong, then?
“My big worry, my one worry is we’re at the very pinnacle of world sport here, we’ve got 12 of the best players from Europe playing 12 of the best players from America,” he pondered. “This is top-level sport, and in all top-level sport, anything can happen.”
“Anything” happened just last week in McGinley’s other sporting love, Gaelic Football, where the 10-1 on favourite Dublin the captain’s team – lost the All-Ireland final to Donegal, whom McGinley’s father played for.
“That was a great Dublin team, won last time, were incredibly well-prepared, brilliant manager, great record, in a great run of form, playing against a team coming off a bad year, coming back from Division Two very heavy underdogs.
“I know the Dublin manager would have prepared his team very well and would have got his strategies and decisions right, and his man management on top of that. But they still went out and they got beaten and they got beaten comfortably.
“In top level sport, these things happen, and that’s always a worry. My job as captain is to minimise the chances of that happening to the best of my ability.”
McGinley knows that the perception is Europe are strong favourites, especially with growing questions about the US wildcards and the omission of the in-form Billy Horschel and Chris Kirk.
“All those points obviously are valid,” he said. “There are questions and there is that kind of talk going on but to be quite honest, I’m under no illusions whatsoever.
“But we’re all really gung-ho and ready for this Ryder Cup and if we don’t win, it won’t be because of complacency, I can assure you that.
“We are very motivated. We know it’s going to be a very strong and strongly-motivated American team.
“I think we’ve got a slightly different threat from America than we’ve had in the past as far as they really feel like they are underdogs and they are up against it. That can galvanise a team, as well, we’ve seen that in the past, certainly from a European perspective.”
McGinley is happy that four of his players Thomas Bjorn, Jamie Donaldson, Stephen Gallacher and Lee Westwood have come to Celtic Manor for a dry run of sorts, but is relaxed about the others, including Victor Dubuisson and Graeme McDowell, who had intended to play in Wales but stayed home.
“Four guys are here, four guys are resting after playing in the Tour Championship last week, and four are preparing in their own way,” he said. “
“I’m not going to say, you have to do that, you have to do this. They know their games better, they know how to prepare better, they know where they are mentally better and I trust them. There’s was certainly no pressure from me or trying to talk them into playing here.”
He is also relaxed about Rory McIlroy’s legal dispute currently in the Irish courts with his former management company Horizon Sport, which has dragged in his possible foursomes partner Graeme McDowell.
“It’s not a concern and I really mean that,” he said. “This has gone on for a year and both of them have had very strong years. Graeme has won The French Open, had a great run during the summer, and Rory arguably has had his best year on Tour, just been voted Player of the Year in America.
“It has not affected their golf. Both of them have assured me it’s not going to affect anything going on behind the scenes.
“I’ll be very surprised if they don’t play together at some stage, but I’m not going to write it in stone. It is something I’ll make decisions over in the next few days.”
McGinley has a “skeleton idea” of what he wants to do with his pairings which he will fill in when he sees practice and gauges form, but he knows the contribution he wants from the sell-out home crowd.
“What I’m looking for is an environment that’s going to elevate the players to play to a different level,” he said. “I have always enjoyed feeding off the crowd when I was a player in Ryder Cups, and I think it’s an incredible occasion, particularly playing at home, where the noise level and the people pulling for you can really elevate you.
“I definitely rode the emotion of the crowd in my first Ryder Cup in 2002 and the tighter things got, the more security I had because the crowd was so much in my favour and were so vociferous when I holed a good putt or hit a good shot, incredibly passionate.
“Big players like big occasions. I think if it is a very noisy Ryder Cup and the crowd can play a big part in hopefully elevating the players to a new level, they will perform better.”