Paul McGinley

Age: 30

Born: Dublin

Height: 5 ft 7in

Weight: 11st 7lb

Turned Pro: 1991

European Tour Ranking

1992 - - 97th, £46,268

1993 - - 38th, £199,780

1994 - - 46th, £146,090

1995 - - 52nd, £124,013

1996 - - 15th, £295,664

1997 - - 21st, £220,278

Professional Victories:

Austrian Open - 1996

Oki Pro-Am - 1997

Irish PGA - 1997

World Cup - 1997

Amateur Victories

Irish Youths championship - 1988

Scottish Youths - 1988

Irish Amateur - 1989

Representative Honours

Professional - World Cup: 1993, 1994, 1997 (winners). Dunhill Cup: 1993, 1994, 1997.

Amateur - Walker Cup: 1991.

Were it not for a twist of fate, a cruel one at the time, Paul McGinley may have received the acclaim of Hill 16 rather than become a world beater on the golf course. As a teenager, his main sporting interest was Gaelic football and hurling, playing with Ballybdoen St Enda's, and his dream was to play for Dublin. Indeed, he represented Dublin at underage level, but a serious knee injury forced him to change sporting direction. Golf has been the winner, even if he retains a place in his heart for Dublin and West Ham.

Although a graduate of the American scholarship system (he attended San Diego University), McGinley left his mark on Irish amateur golf: he won the Irish and Scottish youths' championships in 1988 and, the following year, won the Irish Close championship, beating Niall Goulding in the final at Rosses Point.

In 1991, he represented Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup match at Portmarnock and, shortly afterwards, made the transition to the professional ranks. The move brought swift reward: he won the European Under 25 Championship in Paris within a month, an early indication of his potential.

However, McGinley was to endure a frustrating wait before securing his first PGA European Tour title. He had to settle for joint second in the Lyon Open in France in 1993 and, that same year, lost a play-off to Costantino Rocca in the French Open. Even harder to take was his play-off defeat to Jose Maria Olazabal in the Mediterranian Open that season after he finished double bogey-bogey to lose a three stroke lead.

The upward graph continued and, if some were putting the "best player on tour not to win a tournament" tag on him, it didn't show. In last year's British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, he shared the midway lead with eventual champion Tom Lehman - and the reality that he could, indeed, compete in such company brought him a long way to his first tour win. A career best last round of 62 propelled him through th field to win the Hohe Brucke Austrian Open at the Waldviertel Club. Finally, he had shed that "best player never to win . . ." tag.

McGinley had been enduring a frustrating time in 1997, mainly due to his short game, until his win in the Smurfit Irish PGA at Fota Island in October. Two weeks later, McGinley claimed his second PGA European Tour success, at the Oki Pro-Am tournament in Madrid. That success brought him past the Tour's £1 million in prizemoney, a feat achieved in less than six years on the circuit.