Philip Reid Tour SceneIt would be a good thing if, at some stage this week at the Seve Trophy, Paul McGinley's good friend Padraig Harrington takes him aside and suggests that the glass is half-full rather than half-empty: that the upward graph he is currently on will eventually lead to future title wins.
After all, nobody filled the bridesmaid's function more frequently than Harrington before truly discovering the art of winning - and, despite the manner of McGinley's loss to US Open champion Michael Campbell in the World Matchplay championship final at Wentworth on Sunday, giving him his third runner-up finish of the season and the 14th of his career, the Dubliner's continued evolvement as a world class player is reflected in him breaking into the world's top-30 for the first time in the latest world rankings.
McGinley will team-up with the rest of the Great Britain and Ireland team today ahead of the Seve Trophy match at The Wynyard Club in the north-east of England dreading having to receive the commiserations of his peers. "I really don't want to hear all that "hard luck" stuff, I just want to get away from the game and regroup," said the 38-year-old Dubliner, who, nevertheless, intends to stick by his commitment to play in the match despite feeling so low in the aftermath of his defeat to Campbell, who plays for the Rest of the World in the President's Cup match with the United States this week.
Few players are as hard on themselves as McGinley.
Yet, the proof that he is doing more things right than wrong is shown by his move to a career high 29th position in the world rankings released yesterday. He also heads the European Points table on the Ryder Cup qualifying - although, admittedly, these are very early days in the race for places on Ian Woosnam's team for The K Club in a year's time - and has moved to sixth position on the PGA European Tour Order of Merit.
While Campbell's second win of the season enabled him to move to the top of the money list, ahead of Retief Goosen, McGinley's elevation to sixth place - with €1,562,307 - has been achieved with no tournament wins. It's not as if he hasn't knocked on the door this season: he lost a play-off to Paul Casey in the TCL Classic in China; was runner-up to Angel Cabrera in the BMW PGA Championship; was third behind Tiger Woods in the NEC Invitational, and now has finished runner-up to Campbell in the world matchplay.
"I'm not far off it at all," agreed McGinley, adding: "I just need to get over a hurdle of having to win again. It's becoming a psychological block now, to be honest, and I need to get over that. I feel I've played so well in a number of tournaments and not won them in the last four or five years and it is starting to bug me.
"I felt I've played fantastically in the matchplay but I am not the winner again and there's lessons to be learned. I'll go away and I'll learn them. I'll regroup and I'll be in the winner's enclosure again soon. I know I will be. I've had three chances to win massive events this year - the BMW, the NEC and now the HSBC and I've gone second, third, second, and that hurts. I'm bitterly disappointed.
"You've got to finish it when you get into position and I haven't done that. (On Sunday) I made the mistake of playing the man a little bit too much instead of playing the course . . . the sour taste that's there is that, having played so well and battled so hard and done so many right things (during the tournament), that I basically finished poorly."
McGinley might like some time for reflection but he doesn't have time to mourn what might have been. This week, he is one of three Irishmen - along with Harrington and Graeme McDowell - in the Britain and Ireland team defending the Seve Trophy against Continental Europe and his schedule after that takes in the Dunhill Links Championship (which has a €4 million purse) and the American Express Championship (with €6 million in prize money) in San Francisco the following week.
McDowell, who is 48th in the world rankings, has a similar itinerary, while Harrington, who successfully defended his Irish PGA title at the weekend, is currently in a stretch of tournaments that will take him up to the Las Vegas Championship - the week after the AmEx - as he seeks to fulfil his playing commitments on the US Tour.
Darren Clarke's immediate playing schedule is uncertain, as he has taken time out to be with his wife Heather who is battling a recurrence of cancer.
Campbell intends to ask Rest of the World captain Gary Player for a day's rest ahead of the President's Cup match after a draining week that saw him win another big title and move to 15th in the world rankings. "At the start of the year, I missed five cuts in a row (but) I didn't panic at all. I didn't push the panic button, not once, because I knew it was going to work out," said Campbell. Despite this latest loss, McGinley doesn't need to hit any panic buttons either.
Irish positions on PGA European Tour order of merit (after World Matchplay): 6th, Paul McGinley (20) a1,562,307; 22nd, Darren Clarke (11) a810,929; 44th, Peter Lawrie (28) a419,455; 48th, Graeme McDowell (15) a389,591; 51st, Padraig Harrington (13) a382,945; 54th, Damien McGrane (27) a372,281; 80th, Gary Murphy (26) a268,517; 185th, David Higgins (7) a44,017; 193rd, Stephen Browne (20) a36,254; 203rd, Colm Moriarty (4) a30,100; 219th, Michael Hoey (5) a22,252; 274th, Philip Walton (15) a7,453.
