McGinley will do a good job as Ryder Cup Captain, now let’s forget about it for a while

Paul McGinley’s appointment as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain for Gleneagles next year should serve to underline that the position is now a one-term job.

All the intrigue and drama around last Tuesday’s decision should never have taken place.

But if it wasn’t for the intervention of Rory McIlroy and his use of Twitter, Colin Montgomerie may well have got the nod.

The support of Rory, plus Luke Donald and Ian Poulter guys who played at Medinah and will be the bedrock of the team at Gleneagles was crucial for McGinley.

Colin’s campaign was gathering a head of steam, and early last week Sky TV certainly believed he had a strong chance.

The players’ input was vital and they felt they had to go public with their backing. They made it absolutely clear they didn’t want to go back to Monty and Paul was their choice.

I remember Colin being interviewed after he’d captained the team to victory at Celtic Manor in 2010, saying it was a ‘one-term’ job and that he’d had his turn.

In fact, he had been one of the strongest voices for that stance in the first place!

So I don’t think he should have allowed himself to be put forward on this occasion. Trying to match up with the US choice of Tom Watson shouldn’t have had a bearing on our choice of captain. And now the Tournament Committee are talking about changing the system of how we select ours!

They need to calm down and not worry. We’ve won five of the last Ryder Cups doing it the way we’re doing it.

Paul will be quieter than some of our previous skippers, but he’ll do a thorough, professional job.

A lot is made of the role of captain, but it’s the players who are the stars. Paul will know this and he’ll do everything to make sure they feel comfortable.

This appointment is also great news for Ireland, with Paul being their first captain. They’ve contributed so much to the event over the years.

It’s disappointing that the likes of Christy O’Connor Snr or former Open winner Fred Daly never had the chance to do it.

But we could have two Irish captains in a row, with Paul in 2014 and maybe Darren Clarke (below) in the US in 2016. For now, let’s leave Paul to enjoy the captaincy and get on with his golf.

And it’s probably time now to put all Ryder Cup talk to bed for a while to concentrate on an exciting year ahead.