TOUR NEWS:YOU'VE GOT to think Paul McGinley will puff out his chest a little more and have an extra spring in his step at the Dunhill Links in Scotland this week, where the Dubliner will return to his primary duties as a tour player after a highly impressive debut as a non-playing captain of Britain and Ireland in the Vivendi Trophy.

Increasingly, though, it seems the 42-year-old, three-time Ryder Cup player is headed towards fulfilling a destiny of a different kind as the first Irishman to captain a Ryder Cup team, for he is now the red-hot favourite to be given that task for the 2014 match at Gleneagles in Scotland.

“He’s a very intelligent guy, he understands what it is players need,” observed Graeme McDowell.

“He’s a really good motivator and I guess that’s what it boils down to. Paul dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s.

“I think Paul would make a great captain. He’s very methodical in his preparations and he understands what players need and players want.”

McDowell, who made his Ryder Cup debut at Valhalla, has been backed up in that assessment by two young guns who are primed to add an energy to next year’s match at Celtic Manor.

Rory McIlroy and Chris Wood were also taken by McGinley’s captaincy, and Wood made the point, “every single player said he was a brilliant captain, very inspirational. He said all the right things at the right times.”

Make no mistake, McGinley, would love to be handed the European captaincy.

Of the team spirit he generated in the Vivendi Trophy, he remarked: “I’ve always been a team player. My background, as everybody knows – up to the age of 19, I really wasn’t a golfer. I was a footballer (with Ballyboden St Enda’s) and I have always thrived on being part of a team.

“The most fun I’ve ever had playing golf has been part of a team . . . I’ve played under wonderful captains – Sam (Torrance), Bernhard (Langer), Woosie, Seve, Olazabal 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.

“I have a view as to what works in team environments and what doesn’t work. I put that into place (in Paris) 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.”

For now, those thoughts of captaincy – the decision is not due to be made until after next year’s Ryder Cup in Celtic Manor – will be put on hold as McGinley attempts to bring some of the energy from that team-room with him onto the fairways as he attempts to overcome what has been, as far as results go, the worst season he has endured on tour since turning professional in 1992.

This week, McGinley is part of an exceptionally strong Irish contingent of 11 players in the Dunhill Links, which is played over the old course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. It features Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, a pair whose performances as part of the winning BI team augur well for when they renew partnership in the World Cup in China in November.

The Dunhill Links will kick-start an intensive, end-of-season schedule for a number of players, with McIlroy third in the Race to Dubai standings (behind Martin Kaymer and Paul Casey, both sidelined with injuries).

“I’m at the top of my game and playing well,” said the 20-year-old Ulsterman. “I’ve got a lot to play for, and obviously the Race to Dubai, it’s huge for me the next couple of months, so hopefully I can put in a couple of really good performances and try to win that.”

If McIlroy is eagerly looking forward to the next couple of months, so too is Pádraig Harrington, who scooped another $1 million (€680,000) with his tied-fourth place finish in the Tour Championship on the US Tour in Atlanta on Sunday, made up of $330,000 for his position in the tournament and another $700,000 bonus for his finish in the FedEx Cup.

Now Harrington returns to a favoured stamping ground on Scotland’s east coast.

Harrington, a winner of the Dunhill Links in 2002 and 2006, is 21st in the Race to Dubai standings (some €1,141,799 behind Kaymer). But the Dubliner, who has transformed his season with a string of top-10 finishes in the US since early-August, will from now on be concentrating solely on the European Tour. He has built in an intensive, late-season schedule that will see him play big-money tournaments at the Dunhill Links, the Portuguese Masters, Singapore Open, HSBC Champions and the Dubai World Championship that could yet see him figure in the mix for the order of merit title if he can bring the momentum of his appearances in the States with him.

These are, of course, early days yet in the qualifying race to be a part of Colin Montgomerie’s team for the Ryder Cup next year, but Harrington has moved to the top of the world points list qualifying (from which the top four players earn automatic selection) with his finish in the Tour Championship and he has moved up to seventh in the latest world rankings.

Peter Lawrie also returns to tournament play this week after a month’s break following the birth of his third daughter, while Irish Open champion Shane Lowry, Estoril Open winner Michael Hoey, Damien McGrane, Darren Clarke, Gareth Maybin and Gary Murphy are all in the field for the €3.4 million tournament.