PAUL McGINLEY with arms and putter raised skyward is a defining Ryder Cup image that has whizzed around the globe since the Irishman sunk a 10ft putt to seal victory for Europe in 2002. The moving pictures go on to show him performing the “penguin jump” as he was swamped by jubilant team-mates on the 18th green at The Belfry before being thrown in the lake.
Two years on, the memory of “that putt” follows the congenial 37-year-old around like an old friend. “It was Sergio (García) who was jumping up and down and that made me jump. It was a ripple effect,” he said. “The best way I can describe it is like a bottle of champagne. You shake it and shake it, take the top off and it explodes. That’s exactly what it was like. Sheer elation and joy. I feel blessed because not everyone gets an experience like that in life.”
McGinley never tires of retelling the story. He has been asked the question umpteen times: How did it feel to sink the putt that won the Ryder Cup? It is a testament to his character that each answer is as enthusiastic as his first.
“People ask me whether I get sick of talking about it. Never. I’m happy to talk about it for ever,” he said. “Having said that, I don’t want it to be the defining moment in my career. That’s why it was important to make this team.”
McGinley, an avid fan of Celtic and West Ham United, very nearly did not make the team after an unremarkable 2003 and a five-week lay-off earlier this year after having surgery on the knee he originally injured as a teenage Gaelic footballer.
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But the 5ft 7in Irishman does not know the meaning of surrender. He earned the tenth, and last, automatic berth by playing his socks off for ten weeks non-stop from the middle of June.
A second place at the Dutch Open and sixth in the US PGA Championship gave him the edge to, in his own words, “make a duck for the line like an Olympic sprinter”.
McGinley never actually won a Ryder Cup match in 2002 — he lost and halved his two foursome and four-ball ties — but his half point in his singles match against Jim Furyk was pivotal.
Over ten feet of manicured lawn, his life changed. “My mobile phone the following morning had something ridiculous like 47 text messages and 100-and-something voice messages. I didn’t know that many people had my mobile phone number,” he said.
McGinley, who worked for a time as a Brussels bureaucrat after university, became an instant celebrity. His winning ball is mounted in a glass case at Sunningdale golf club. “The big difference has been my profile,” he said. “People remember me from all over the world. I am identified with that putt and it’s a nice thing to be identified with.”