Trials and smiles of a Tour operator

October 1995

HE COULDN'T get out of Valderrama quickly enough. A mere £150 short of gaining a place in the European Tour's showcase event, Paul McGinley as first reserve was required to make the trip to the south of Spain. In his heart, the Dubliner knew it would be a wasted journey. No one pulls out of the Volvo Masters. Too much money, too much prestige. He went anyway.

McGinley hit the road to Gibraltar as soon as the 54th and last player smacked a drive down the first fairway and caught a flight out of there. The Tour's top players were just finished their first rounds, on a course tagged the "Augusta of Europe, when his plane touched down in Dublin Airport.

Ten days later, he was off again. Los Angeles beckoned.

Six weeks spent in the California sun rejuvenated McGinley. A period of contemplation enabled him to focus on the new season. Hard, physical work outs got the man who once aspired to play for the Dubs (before a knee injury forced a switch in sporting allegiance to golf) back into tip top physical condition, and endless practice reshaped his game.

When Paul McGinley returned home to Dublin for Christmas the angst at missing out on the Volvo Masters had subsided. He was hungry for 1996. Ready. There were a number of factors the hard work on the ample ranges of the US's West coast the continued guiding eye of golf guru Bob Torrance the experience built up over the previous four seasons a new caddie Edinburgh Jimmy an experienced guy, recommended to me by my manager Chubby (Chandler) who knew him from his own playing days on the Tour says McGinly and a new base, in Sunningdale, designed to cut out midnight arrivals and dawn departures to and from Dublin.

The result that, next week, McGinley will be back in Valderrama. Not as a reserve but as one of Europe's to players. A winner, too (in the Austrian Open). A genuine contender.

McGinley has also troubled the European Tour's statisticians housed in their HQ in Virginia Water, Wentworth, not far from the Dubliner's new home. He is ninth in stroke average( 71.15) and fourth in birdies (338). Most significantly, he is 13th in the Order of Merit with prize money for the season of £248,200.

It's been a good year for Ginley. On December 7th, he is due to marry English professional Alison Shapcott in Dublin. Today, he will get a rare enough opportunity to watch an English Premiership soccer match.

Tomorrow, McGinley and Darren Clarke will board a plane for the upteenth time this year destination Valderrama. To reach Europe's golfing paradise, McGinley has enjoyed a season which has taken him around the globe a number of times and produced infinitely more good times than bad.

January

McGINLEY's first tournament of the season, the Malaysian Open. Disaster. The temperatures touched 120 degrees and Murphy's Law struck. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. He shot an 80 in the first round and missed the cut. "It was only a warm up tournament, but after all the hard work I'd put in, it was difficult to take," he recalls.

There was no point dwelling on however. McGinley hung around for the next two days and spent his time on the practice ground. No major problems. He put his actual performance in the tournament down to "cobwebs" and, the following week, moved on to Singapore for the start of the European Tour with renewed conviction.

Darren Clarke, second in Malaysia, and Andrew Coltart were his travelling buddies on the short hop. The heat was again excessive in Tanah Mcrah. Coltart lost in a play off to Ian Woosnam. But things were much improved for McGinley. Four solid rounds all sub 70 gave him a tie for 14th place, ensured a few bob winged its way to his bank account and, most importantly, convinced him, he was headed in the right direction.

February

THE Vines Resort, Perth. The final hole of the final round. Squinting in the searing Australian summer sun, McGinley's eyes follow his putt convinced it is in. But it is minutely off time, marginally too quick. Agonisingly, it horseshoes out. If the ball had plopped into the cup, McGinley would have found himself in a play off with, Woosnam for the Heineken Classic. Instead, McGinley secure his fourth runners up placing since joining the European Tour in 1992.

No real heartbreak, though. "I was unlucky not to win. However lit proved to me my practice had paid off, not just the six weeks in California over the winter, but all the work I'd put in since turning professional," he says.

"I finally began to feel things were coming together. I knew my game was good and, obviously, my fitness was also good, especially competing in extreme humidity and heat."

The globe trotting continued.

South Africa hosted the next three tournaments on the European schedule. Although McGinley rested during the Sun City Pro-Am, he had further paydays in the weather curtailed SA PGA and the Players' Championship. It provided an indication that he had banished the inconsistency which frustrated him in 1995.

March

A MISERLY month. A rainstorm earlier in the year caused the Moroccan Open to be switched from a seaside course to an inland course and, as is customary, the Tour notified players of the change some weeks in advance. The new course wasn't to McGinley's liking, however, and he pencilled in a free week.

The rain also intervened to halt the Catalan, open in its tracks "I was within striking distance after two good opening rounds and, then, he laboured his way around the Dubai Classic in the Emirates.

Worse followed. He'd entered the Portuguese Open with high hopes. However, a virus laid him so low that whenever McGinley hit a shot, he was forced to sit down on the fairway. It was something of a miracle that McGinley even managed to survive all four days in Lisbon, but tied 55th was his lowest finish of the season to date. "I underwent all the tests when I got back to London, but I was just run down from all the early season travel.

April

SOME players change their putter with remarkable frequency.

McGinley doesn't. He has had just three blades in his five years as a professional, and the same one for the past two and a half years. When problems on the green began to surface for the first time in May, he decided perseverance was the only answer.

Three weeks after his Portuguese experience, McGinley returned to competition in France, a happy hunting ground. He shot a 65 in the first round of the Cannes Open at Royal Mougins, but wasn't happy. "I relied too much on my short game. I had a lot of work to do on my swing and it was important to find out why."

It was somewhat ironic that he travelled to the Turespana Masters in Valencia the following week and played "as well tee to green as I ever have". Unfortunately, his putter was cold and he had six three putts in two rounds. Worse, he missed the cut by a shot. "It was hard to digest. I never even looked like missing the cut and it was a big blow," he says. It was his first missed cut of the season. The drought was to continue for almost a month, mainly because of putting woes.

May

CATCH 22 time. The Irish PGA Championship clashed with the Italian Open. McGinley going well in the "current form" exempt category for the British Open decided to play in Italy. "It was a tough decision, but at the time the right, one," says McGinley. In hindsight, it was a disaster. I played poorly. The weather was terrible. I just didn't enjoy the week at all." Another missed cut.

He decided to miss the Spanish Open (where Paraig Harrington triumphed) and, instead, opted to practice at home and, also, play a few practice rounds at the Oxfordshire, where the following week's Benson and Hedges International was being held. The only problem was McGinley played his practice rounds in glorious weather. The B&H was held in 50 miles per hour winds. He missed another cut.

"It was just a bad spell and I had to ride it out," says McGinley. He stopped the rot at the Volvo PGA at Wentworth in the last week of May. Tied 37th place. "I wasn't fully hack, but it was a step in the right direction."

June

Environment protection legislation in Germany prohibits clubs from using fertilisers to increase the rough. "That's why scoring is always so red hot in Germany,", says McGinley. "It suits the big hitters there isn't so much trouble if you miss the fairway.

Still, a top to finish in the Deutsche Bank Open in Hamburg confirmed a return to his early season form. While the putter still wasn't burning hot, McGinley also survived for the weekend in the English Open and the Northumberland Challenge.

The best was yet to come. He'd four putted the 14th in the third round of the French Open, but came roaring back, on the final day with a 63, his lowest ever Tour round. "It just happened, but it was great to shoot 63. I've shot 65 a number of times, however that two shots difference in a round is huge."

July

IMAGINE? Leader of the British Open, at the halfway stage? Pinch me, I'm dreamin' stuff. The month had started off with a respectable enough finish at the Murphy's Irish Open (although not good enough to clinch exemption to the British Open at Royal Lytham). After completing his final round in the Scottish Open on Saturday afternoon, he drove to Liverpool to be on the first tee at 7.30 for Open qualifying on the Sunday morning. "Qualifying is a sprint, with no room for error, says McGinley. A first round 66 eased his nerves, and a 71 to follow booked his place in the championship.

What a week. McGinley fired his hole in one at the ninth hole in second round to take the halfway lead. Playing alongside eventual champion Tom Lehman, in the third round, he tried to hang in. He eventually finished tied 14th, booked his place for Troon next year, and learned a considerable amount of money.

As his managers Chubby Chandler, said to him. "Now 250 million people know who you are."

"Some people were critical of me, but I don't accept that. I still hadn't won on the Tour then and if I get into a similar situation in a major again I will know exactly what to expect."

August

TWO weeks in Donegal can do wonders for a Litschau, Austria, refreshed from the fishing cumgolfing holiday in his father's home county. "The first summer break I've had in years," he says. With the so called "big guns" away at the US PGA, he proceeded to win the Austrian Open, his first tournament success.

It may have been the smallest tournament financially on the Tour, but McGinley still had to shoot a final round 62 for a 19 under par total of 269 to claim victory.

The letters of congratulations poured into his home afterwards. Sacks of them. "I had a sense of relief, rather than anything else. The main thing was that I took the pressure off me." He was a winner, at last.

He wasn't the first time winner to discover a reaction the following week. "You're still coming down from an extreme high," he says. Still, he survived for the weekend in the Czech Open and again at the curtailed German Open in Stuttgart before ending August by missing his first cut in 12 tournaments at the British Masters. "It was a night, mare.

I hit five double bogeys in the second round and was probably mentally tired."

September

PAUL McGINLEY wouldn't normally be considered one of the longest off the tee on the Tour, so his respectable finishes in the Loch Lomond Invitational and the Smurfit European Open at The K Club "Two courses suited to the big hitter," he says left him with a warm enough glow.

Although he missed the cut at the Lancome Trophy in Paris at the start of the month ("I was unlucky, I didn't really play badly"), the visits to Scotland and Ireland confirmed his current well being.

"The wind blew in Loch Lornond, but I enjoyed the course and had a solid week, while I play really well tee to green at The K Club, and just missed a top 10 finish by a shot."

October

ANOTHER good month. He was halfway leader in the German Masters in Berlin and, if another Irishman Darren Clarke actually walked away with the top honours, a top five finish enabled McGinley to maintain his quest for exemption into next year's US Open.

"I played well all four days in Berlin and you just have to be philosophical about it. Darren's win compensated a lot. I know how hard he works and how much he deserves a victory. At one stage in the final round, we were on adjoining fairways. He'd just shot seven birdies and I gave him the signal to keep it going. We were all pumping for him."

When Ernie Els attempted to take out what he called Ireland's danger man in the Alfred Dunhill Cup last week, he went for McGinley. And failed. "Unfortunately, the bounce of the ball went against, us in the other two matches it was all a bit of an anticlimax. We were hugely disappointed, says McGinley. But the Volvo Masters is a big week for us all. The top 15 in the Order of Merit after Valderrama will gain exemption into the US Open and that is an important target.

The season, however, will go on and on even after Valderrama Atlanta, Hawaii, Australia and Africa are pencilled into different diaries for the next month or so. There is no off season any more.