GOLF: Paul McGinley is banking on his good friendship with Padraig Harrington bringing them more glory at this week's World Cup, which starts at Puerto Vallarta tomorrow.
While McGinley has dropped from 35th to 104th in the world this year, Harrington has climbed from 11th to eighth and is fresh from beating world number one Tiger Woods at the Target World Challenge to win $1 million in California on Sunday.
"He's in high spirits and rightly so," said McGinley of his fellow Dubliner, with whom he shared World Cup glory five years ago.
"While my season's been disappointing - apart from the Ryder Cup, of course - that win capped off a great year for Padraig."
Harrington went head-to-head with Woods for the last 36 holes of the Target World Challenge and after seeing an eight-stroke lead cut to one with four to play, held off the world number one and ended up winning by two.
But it has not all been doom and gloom for McGinley. Holing the winning putt against the Americans in the Ryder Cup at The Belfry has still given him a golden memory from the season.
"The experience of playing 11 events on the US Tour paid off there. I wouldn't have had the Ryder Cup I did but for that. I'm disappointed I didn't perform better elsewhere, but I'm on a steep learning curve and now I've got to do something to beat The Belfry," he said.
With Woods and eight more of the world's top 25 missing this week, a second World Cup triumph would not top it. But with another $1 million cheque on offer - this time to be shared - it would be the perfect way to end the season for both.
"Padraig and I have always done well in this and being such good friends helps," said McGinley. "Team spirit is obviously important at the Ryder Cup, but it's probably even more important here."
Opening Fourballs Tee-off Times
(All times Irish)
15.25 - Singapore (M Mamat, C Lam), Fiji (D Chand, V Singh).
15.37 - Australia (C Parry, A Scott), Denmark (A Hansen, S Hansen).
15.49 - Argentina (E Romero, A Cabrera), Sweden (C Pettersson, N Fasth).
16.01 - France (T Levet, R Jacquelin), Wales (IWoosnam, B Dredge).
16.13 - Trinidad and Tobago (S Ames, R Ames), Scotland (P Lawrie, A Forsyth).
16.25 - South Korea (K J Choi, S K Ho), Colombia (J Amaya, R Velasquez).
16.37 - Canada (I Leggatt, M Weir), Germany (S Struver, A Cejka).
16.49 - New Zealand (C Perks, M Campbell), Switzerland (M Chatelain, A Bossert).
17.01 - England (J Rose, P Casey), Japan (S Maruyama, T Izawa).
17.13 - Ireland (Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley), Myanmar (S K Naing, K HHan).
17.25 - Venezuela (J Acevedo, C Larrain), US (P Mickelson, D Toms).
17.37 - Mexico (E Toledo, P Del Olmo), South Africa (R Sabbatini, T Clark).
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