The problem with a goal is that once you’ve achieved that goal the goalposts change and you have to guddle about looking for a new goal to aim for.
One of the big goals looming on the horizon for Europe’s golfers is the 2016 Ryder Cup and the jockeying, nudging and elbowing for position on that team is already well underway with the qualifying process almost four months old. The big moves will be made in the new year, of course, when an increasingly fevered schedule of majors, WGC events and regular tour tussles will get the main movers and shakers, well, moving and shaking.
Paul McGinley knows all about this Ryder Cup goal. He first achieved that when he made Sam Torrance’s 2002 team and went on to hole the winning putt at The Belfry. It was something of a golden goal as Europe lifted that little gold chalice. Stephen Gallacher also tasted Ryder Cup success on his debut a year ago at Gleneagles and while he may not have enjoyed as happy an experience as McGinley did, having lost both his matches, the Scot still achieved his lifetime ambition. Compared to his rousing 2014, the 2015 campaign had a bit of the ‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show’ feel about it and McGinley can sympathise. The Irishman remains highly fond of Gallacher – the two men share a common passion for Celtic for a start - and he would like nothing better than to see the Scot make another push for a place on Darren Clarke’s team at Hazeltine next September.
“When I made my first Ryder Cup team in 2002, I holed the winning putt, everything was great, but 2003 was a poor year for me,” recalled McGinley. “It happens a lot. You see a lot of guys achieving a goal and then they fall off. I fell off again in 2006 after making my home Ryder Cup at the K Club. It’s understandable. It’s important Stevie galvanises himself now and not be known as ‘Stevie Gallacher who played one Ryder Cup’. That’s a huge motivation and it was for me in 2004. I made a dash for the line and that’s Stevie’s challenge now. He’s got the game, he’s got the heart, he’s been there before. He has to galvanise himself and go forward again.”
Bursting down the Ryder Cup door and barging your way into the team is a formidable task on a par with breaking into the bullion depository at Fort Knox with a bent soup spoon. For Russell Knox, it’s a case of hammer on and see what happens. Although he missed out on a vast number of Ryder Cup qualifying points with his WGC HSBC Champions win due to the fact that he wasn’t a European Tour member at the time, the confidence he has gained, and the huge opportunities that are now knocking, as a result of that win have giving the Inverness man a sizeable platform from which to launch a Ryder Cup assault now that he has finally taken out that European membership.
“I’m sure Darren will be keeping close tabs on him,” added McGinley of Knox, who followed up that win in China by losing in a play-off on the PGA Tour in Mexico just seven days later. “He’s a welcome addition to the European Tour. He’s Mr Consistency in terms of how he plays the game so he looks like a Luke Donald kind of player who would fit easily into foursomes and fourballs the way Luke has done. Consistency is a very underrated value in the Ryder Cup.”
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