Paul McGinley’s toughest decision of his Ryder Cup captaincy and the first phone call he made on Monday night was leaving Luke Donald out of his team for Gleneagles.
The Irishman made the most difficult phone call first even more difficult than those the Tour had trying to link up with McGinley’s wildcard selections at Tuesday’s showpiece press conference at Wentworth knowing he was denying a personal friend and someone he felt particularly attached to after a close Ryder Cup relationship.
But McGinley agreed that Stephen Gallacher had played his way on to the team, that Ian Poulter’s affinity with the event made his selection almost a formality, and felt that picking Lee Westwood ahead of Donald was “the best thing to do in the interests of the European team”.
“My relationship with Luke is very close,” said the skipper. “I was his first partner in 2004, I played with him in 2006, I was designated to ‘look after’ him as vice-captain in 2010 and 2012.
“The one we both managed to miss was 2008. I forged a very strong relationship with him for a number of reasons.
“He was very, very disappointed. But he said ‘even though you have not picked me, I believe you’ll be a great captain’, and his last words to me were ‘Go Europe’. That says a lot about Luke.”
To have an option of a player of Ryder Cup calibre of Westwood only behind Faldo, Montgomerie, Ballesteros and Langer in career points won eases the pain of losing Donald’s equally outstanding record, one of the top three on either side in percentage points won in history.
The key, McGinley said, was Westwood’s reaction to the captain’s public call through the media to see some reaction after four missed cuts in June and July.
“It was two former world number ones and Lee won it by a very short head,” he said.
“Ultimately, that little flourish of form that Lee showed around (the WGC Bridgestone at) Firestone and PGA Championship was a flourish Luke wasn’t able to show.
“That’s how close it was. I told Lee he wasn’t going to get in on past form alone and he stepped up to the plate and produced.
“Luke played very well and consistent but he didn’t produce these green shoots, those rounds in the mid-60s I saw from Lee.”
Poulter, although his form was just as modest as the other two Englishmen, wasn’t even the subject of a discussion when it became clear his injury problems of the summer were behind him.
Even when the transatlantic phone line at the press conference struggled to make contact with Poulter and Westwood, the hero of Medinah and the man with an 80% record of points won in three appearances eventually piped up from Florida “I’m here!”
“See? Poulter’s never beaten,” quipped McGinley.
“Obviously thrilled,” said Poulter down the line. “I’m very, very proud to be a pick and I just can’t wait to get to Gleneagles. It’s an amazing team. I’m very happy with the way my form’s come around, my body is in better shape than it was in the middle of the season.
“I’ve got three weeks to prepare to be ready and you know I get very fired up and very motivated for the Ryder Cup.
“The good and exciting thing is that last week I started to hole lots of putts and that is a good feeling coming to Gleneagles.”
Westwood admitted he was quietly confident he would be picked, even though he’d watched the last week of qualification from the sidelines after failing to proceed beyond the first week of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup play-offs.
“Paul said ‘show some form’ and I showed some at the Bridgestone and the US PGA Championship so I had an inkling that I’d get picked,” he said.
“He obviously felt he needed experience and I guess I can almost be like a vice-captain in the team room with the rookies and things like that. I’ve got more Ryder Cup experience than a lot of captains.
“So if he wants me to take the rookies to one side, or play with them in practice, go out with them, I’m able to do that.”