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THE VIVENDI TROPHY WITH SEVERIANO BALLESTEROS

September 27, 2009

Paul McGinley

SAINT-NOM-LA-BRETECHE, FRANCE

Q. You put an awful lot of effort into that. How was the experience from your point of view, now that it's reached this conclusion?
PAUL McGINLEY: It was a great experience. I really enjoyed playing. They were a brilliant bunch of lads, every single one of them. We had great team meetings. We had a lot of energy and we had a strategy, we had a plan from when we got here on the very first day. We stuck to that plan, and we came through in the end against what was proved on Sunday in a singles to be a very, very strong European Team, and the thing that makes me most proud is that we have beaten such a strong team and we have beaten them in the Paris.

Q. They came back at you really strong.
PAUL McGINLEY: We knew they would, but we won as a team. We won as a team because we did all of our hard work in the pairs, which is always the most difficult thing.

Q. Do you concur with what Thomas said that none of the 20 there would be out of place at Celtic Manor, they have shown that they are capable and competent.
PAUL McGINLEY: Well, I think what this has done, people have talked at the start of the week about the guys that are missing, and I think what this has done has given opportunities to guys, because certain players were missing, it's given opportunities for guys.
It shows -- it's given them an opportunity to impress, and a lot have impressed, and you never know, if it comes down to a situation where it's a pick next year, that, you know, they have put some points on the board. They have played as part of the team, and it might be just one thing that might sway the captain's pick in the end. They have certainly given them self an opportunity to make the team, if not playing-wise, if it does come down to picks, certain players have proven to be very instrumental to teams this week.

Q. You have been fastidious with your planning; you really wanted to be methodical.
PAUL McGINLEY: I'm not a methodical kind of person, but I have had a notebook and of course I wrote down thoughts and other things, and a lot of the stuff I wrote down during the day was said at the team meetings at night. We had a team meeting in my room every night. It's a small room, but it's a very energetic room. We had great meetings in there for half an hour every night at 7.30 before we went to dinner.
I've always been a team player. As a person, I mean, my background as everybody knows up to the age of 19, I really wasn't a golfer. I was a footballer and that's my background. I have always thrived on being part of a team.
As I said to the guys at the start of the week, the most fun I've ever had playing golf has been part of a team. If I can impart some of that fun onto them, and impart some of that experience that I've learned, I'd be delighted, and I've learned a lot.
As I said in the press many times, I've played under wonderful captains -- Sam, Bernhard, Woosie, Seve, OlazÃ¡bal and Monty; I mean, Christ Almighty, that's a Who's Who of European golf, and to play under each one of those, I've learned a lot from each one of them. And Des Smyth, as well. I spent a lot of time with him before he went to The Seniors Tour and Des's views on team golf have been spot on. As I've progressed and gone through my experiences with teams, I've realised how much Des has been on the money.
You know, I've learned a lot, and I had a view, I have a view as to what works in team environments and what doesn't work. I put that into place this week and I didn't know if it was going to work or not, but I had a good idea that it would and I'm just pleased that it turned out right.

Q. The lads from Ireland, their performance, when you put them up front, they came through with four points.
PAUL McGINLEY: Those are both players that react to responsibility. Both of those players are players that thrive on being given a big leading role, and I think that was the best way of getting the things out of them.
Originally before I came into the week, I had down G-Mac as somebody I would play down the order in the singles, but as the week went on, and where we were last night I thought that Rory's playing in the singles for the first time, sometimes the singles can be a lonely place, having had all the harmony of team events and partners the first two days, and I thought that I would get the most out of both of them if I put them side-by-side. There's an energy between them that I want to take advantage of, and hence they went out one and two today and they got me over the line.

Q. A final comment from Seve this evening; what would you like to say about that?
PAUL McGINLEY: Seve has been a really good friend of mine as long as I've been on Tour. He has always singled me out for special attention, and he's given me special touches throughout my career and I really appreciate that. Nobody was more distraught than me when I heard about his illness.
I have been in touch with him quite a bit, not just this week, but in the last couple of years. And you know, he's called me two or three times this week personally, and he called me on the golf course today to congratulate me once the final putt went in.
And I really appreciate his input to me personally, because we have all said everything, all of the things that have been said about him, what he's done for The European Tour, but on a personal level he's been a great friend to me and a great supporter of me. I just enjoy Seve. I just enjoy him. I mean, what else can you say? Just everything about him.
I said it to him, to me, he's the Elvis Presley of golf. He brought rock and roll to golf. He thought the flair and tenacity to golf that was there before with Arnold Palmer, but really from a European point of view, he was the start of this evolution now of sexiness in golf, and long may it continue.

End of FastScripts

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