Those who know Paul McGinley say he could still talk even if he was 10 feet under water with a mouthful of pebbles, so it comes as something of a surprise to learn the European Ryder Cup captain has been undergoing speech training ahead of next year's series of Gleneagles oratories.
McGinley revealed he has been undergoing a series of half-day speech 'content' lessons with a firm in London. "The training I'm having is so much about my presentation, but more to do with the content of the speeches I will have to make at the Ryder Cup," he said.
"It's about getting everything chronologically correct in my presentations. I've been asked to do more and more public speaking and I feel I need to get myself more to a professional level, and there is a woman in London who is helping me and I've had three sessions already.
"I'm not concerned about my presentation, as that's been great. I've been fortunate because, of the five years I spent at college, public speaking was a part of my Marketing and International Business courses.
"I'm not going to be an amateur standing up there on the stage when I am trying to be a professional, and there are so many facets - I have been trying to upgrade my public speaking to the best of my ability. If that means getting outside help in some areas then I will do that."
Of course, one immediately recalls Nick Faldo's foot-in-mouth diabolical opening speech at the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla. In asking Graeme McDowell whether he was from "Ireland or Northern Ireland", Faldo naively or stupidly, went down the untouchable political and social path for every Ulsterman. It was little wonder that McDowell, who was making his European Team debut appeared more than a little discomfited by Faldo's gaucheness.
Then there was Faldo's stereotypical contention that Padraig Harrington has "hit more balls than potatoes have been planted in Ireland", before introducing the Dane Soren Hanson as 'Soren Stenson'. McGinley will get more public speaking experience this week as he's spending five days in New York and Boston as guest of both the Irish/American Society and corporate giant Ernst and Young.
"I've got a lot of public speaking coming up, speaking to the Irish/American Society and on Wall Street with Ernst and Young as they are a top tier sponsor of the Ryder Cup," he said. "There will be no business on any golf course so I'll be leaving my clubs at home."
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