GOLF: Ryder Cup 2014In the end, good sense prevailed and the European Tour listened to its players. Paul McGinley was last night chosen as the European Ryder Cup captain for next year's matches in Gleneagles and in accepting the nomination he paid tribute to the sterling work done on his behalf by the continent's best players and Rory McIlroy specifically.

The Twitter campaign waged by McIlroy, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter swung the decision for him, with Players’ Committee chairman Thomas Bjorn admitting that they couldn’t very well ignore the groundswell of support for McGinley. “Well if Rory doesn’t make the team,” smiled McGinley, “I think he’s got a good chance of a pick.”

Although five names were initially put forward, it ultimately came to McGinley and Colin Montgomerie. The others mentioned were Sandy Lyle, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Paul Lawrie but neither the Spaniard or either of the latter two Scots were considered seriously.

Montgomerie and McGinley – committee members both – had to leave the room while the serious business of choosing between them was taken. After an hour of discussion, during which McGinley stewed in his hotel room with his brother eating oatmeal biscuits, he was called back. Bjorn met him at the door and congratulated him. Ryder Cup captain 2014. It has quite a ring to it.

McGinley had watched from the sidelines as the hectic pushing and shoving went on over the weeks building up to the vote. But while others got publicly involved, he sat on his hands and said nothing. In the end, his silence and understated class won the day. With such voluble support in his corner, in any case, he didn’t have to open his mouth.

Right thing

“It’s amazing what you learn when you listen and you don’t talk. I knew I had the support of the players and if it was meant to be it was meant to be. I felt it was the right thing to do not to speak in public on it. I read and followed every word that went on in the last two weeks. I’ve watched with interest my chances go up and down like a yo-yo.

“I can’t wait to get working with the players, particularly the ones who’ve given me so much support in recent days.

“I was very tempted, to be honest, to speak up. I’m very pleased. I’ve got a great wife and great friends around me whose opinions I respect and those friends and my wife told me to stay with dignity in this whole thing and don’t get involved. ‘It will work in the long term for you.’ And that advice was really good. I believed that myself, as well, too. It wasn’t difficult to convince me.”

As McGinley spoke in the Regal Ballroom of the gargantuan St Regis Hotel, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington slipped into the back of the room wearing broad smiles.

Harrington was tickled at the difference in his friend’s face from earlier in the day when McGinley was wound tight as a drum. For his part, McGinley had no difficulty picking out the player who had done most to boost his candidacy.

“A couple of good things happened for me in terms of getting this role. The first one was that Rory and Graeme McDowell played under me in my first Vivendi Trophy in 2009. I’ve been very fortunate Rory has played underneath me and that was a big card that Rory played for me.

Very humbling

“That was on my side, the fact that he had played underneath me and he had a strong view because of that. It’s very humbling to be honest.

“And not just Rory – Ian Poulter, Luke Donald, Justin Rose, keep going down the line as far as you want to go. So many players came out totally unprompted on my side and that’s a very humbling place to be for a professional golfer when your peers think that much of you.”

McIlroy couldn’t have been happier that the right choice had been made. “I said earlier in the week that the Ryder Cup captaincy should be an honour and a one-time thing and I still stand by that. I’m delighted that Paul got the captaincy for Gleneagles and I hope that Darren gets it in 2016. That’s what I was hoping all along.

“I played under him in the Seve Trophy and had such a good time. It was my first ever experience in a team atmosphere as a professional and he made me feel so comfortable as captain. I enjoyed playing under him the most of every captain I’ve had. He makes me you feel so good about yourself. He put me out number one and he said, ‘Look, I want you to lead out the team.’ He built us up and made us feel comfortable.”

He has 20 months to do so again.