Peter Hanson, the two-time Ryder Cup winner, believes that Europe will be even stronger under Paul McGinley than they were when Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal led them to victory.
Hansen played in both those matches but earned only one point from his five matches. In Medinah, he lost his singles to Jason Dufner, who was one shot better than Hanson at nine-under-par on day three of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
In the 11 days since McGinley was appointed Europe captain for Gleneagles 2014, it seems that not only are Europe's leading players delighted with his appointment but the entire European Tour is behind the Dubliner.
"Everyone is excited that Paul has been named captain and everyone on the Tour supports him 100%," said Hanson. "Paul has that ability to make everyone around him feel good and, while you can't deny that the US team has a strong captain in Tom Watson – and despite Tom being so popular in Scotland having won four of his five Open's in Scotland – his team could be up against it, given the support we've seen already for Paul.
"What he's done on the back stage and in the team room at the last two Ryder Cups has been fantastic," he said. "He's very analytical and knows what is required in captaining a team. If I was to single out his best quality, though, it's his positive personality, because he puts anything about himself to one side and thinks only about the team.
"Paul will be very different from Monty and Jose Maria because he will be a lot more open with the players and discuss team issues a lot more with the players. We are talking about different personalities but Paul's a lot more open-minded and he's a very good listener."
England's Chris Wood will take a three-shot lead into the final round in Doha after shooting a third- round 64 and move to 15-under. Those closest to the 25-year-old are England's Simon Khan (64), Sweden's Alex Noren (66) and New Zealand's Michael Campbell (68). Campbell is striving to end more than seven years without a win after he defeated McGinley in the final of the World Matchplay Championship.
The Fifer Peter Whiteford headed straight for the practice range after dropping three shots over his closing two holes – he landed a 7-iron into water at the last for a double-bogey – as he signed for a 72 to drop from the top-15 after 16 holes to starting today's final round tied for 38th at five-under. "It was a very disappointing way to finish; I had a bad swing on my third shot," he said.
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