Years of "pain" finally yield overnight success

PAUL McGINLEY, the newly crowned Austrian Open champion, may have to wait for one of the key bonuses arising from his European Tour breakthrough. Officially, his entry into the $1.9 million Sarazen World Open is too late to make this year's deadline which fell after last month's British Open.

But all may not be lost. "My management company is trying to, get them to make an exception," said McGinley yesterday. And his prospects may be helped considerably by the fact that the event is the brainchild of Donald Panoz, owner of the Elan Corporation in Athlone, scheduled for Chateau Elan in Georgia on October 31st to November 3rd, the end of season tournament already has three Irish qualifiers - Philip Walton (English Open) and Raymond Burns (Norwegian Open) through their exploits last season, and Padraig Harrington, the current Spanish Open champion.

Meanwhile, McGinley was at Woburn yesterday watching his fiancee, Allison Shapcott, attempt to pre qualify for the British Women's Open. Later, they went into London to celebrate prior to his departure this morning for the Czech Open at Marianske Lazne.

"Though I was thrilled with the way I scored, particularly in a final round of 62, my target now is "to win a bigger event," he said. "And I plan to be very active towards the end of the year." He is expecting an invitation into the Kapalua International in Hawaii on November 7th to 10th, after which he will head for two or three tournaments in Australia. Then he returns home for his wedding on December 7th - nine days before his 30th birthday.

Though there was a lot of pain in my career over the last few seasons, I now realise it was the price I had to pay to be ready, mentally, for Sunday's win" he went on. "I'm sure people must have been wondering if I would ever make it, but I knew I was making progress, despite all the near misses.

"Sure, I made silky mistakes, particularly when losing to (Jose Maria) Olazabal in the Mediterranean Open. But on the last three occasions I was under pressure to win, I could see a big change." They were his second place finishes in the Smurfit Irish Professional Championship to Walton and Glen Dimplex International Matchplay to Des Smyth last ear and to Ian Woosnam in Perth at the start of this season.

McGinley went on: "The graph was very definitely going upwards. My thinking was better and I was making fewer errors. Then I felt that things were beginning to happen when I shot a 63 in the final round of the French Open. That was some score around a top quality course like The National.

"The Irish Open was obviously a disappointment but I picked things up again at Royal Lytham. Everything that happened there was positive, particularly the 65 - on Friday when I tied for the lead. While the old aggression was still there, I had achieved greater control of my game."

Indicative of McGinley's clear thinking in Austria was the manner in which he heightened the pressure on the leader, Juan Carlose Pinero, during the final round. Given his position in the eighth last group, the Irishman's scores would normally have gone up on the board only after every three holes: hole by hole scores are limited to the last five groupings which are accompanied by official scorers.

"Knowing the situation, I told my caddie to inform the Tour officials that we would be giving them - my position after every hole so it would be up on the scoreboards," he said. "And that's what happened. I don't know if Pinero saw what was happening, I was determined to keep the pressure on him."

He went on: "There's been a lot of heartache, a lot of downs behind this win. I've had to make my mistakes in public and that's never easy. You sensed people were talking, asking questions that you were trying desperately to answer.

"Then there was the surprise of seeing Padraig Harrington break through in the Spanish Open after only a few mouths on tour. That must have been nice. I wish I had done it Padraig's way. I would have saved myself a lot of pain."

Perhaps that is one of the reasons why he is not prepared to make a serious, public commitment to gaining Ryder Cup honours, despite the fact that the 1997 qualifying series gets under way in a few weeks. "Obviously I would dearly love to play in the Ryder Cup but I'm not setting myself a time limit," he said.

"I have found that it's easy to lose your focus when you go all out for a particular objective. The more prudent approach, as far as I'm concerned, its to take things as they come, which is what I did for the World Cup and Dunhill Cup."

Interestingly, he and Harrington, whose family homes in Rathfarnham, Dublin are only a mile apart, are side by side on the current Order of Merit table and both have exceeded £200,000 in tournament earnings this season. Barring a major upset, they will be partners along with Darren Clarke in Ireland's Dunhill Cup team which will be finalised after the Czech Open.

It is always extremely difficult to predict the success of an amateur, however gifted, entering professional ranks. Which brings me back to 1992 when McGinley was in his first year on Tour and I was, discussing the prospects of the country's young players with Christy O'Connor Jnr.

"I like the look of McGinley," said the Galway professional. "He has a money game." Given current career earnings of £730,000, the Galwayman wasn't far wrong.

The Austrian Open champion, who has also climbed in to the top 100 in the Son World Rankings for the first time, will be taking that game into the Czech Republic this week, along with Harrington, who is resuming European action having had a week's holiday in Spain. The field also includes Walton, who missed the cut in the USPGA Championship at Valhalla last Friday, Clarke, Burns, David Higgins and Francis Howley.

Higgins collected a welcome cheque for £4,555 in Austria but in the context of retaining his card, he is still precariously placed at 108th in the Order of Merit. He will need another high finish in the more lucrative Czech Open to ease the pressure, given that he cannot expect to get into every tournament he attempts to enter between now and the end of the season.