Golf: Paul McGinley, Ryder Cup player

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Golf: Paul McGinley, Ryder Cup player

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Paul McGinley will have to wait another 10 months actually to play in the Ryder Cup but qualifying for the 2001 match, postponed for a year by the events of 11 September, represented a huge step forward for the 35-year-old Dubliner. "I said at the start of the year that there would be at least two Irishmen in the Ryder Cup team and if I could make it then there would be three," McGinley said. "I think we are very fortunate in Ireland to have three such successful golfers in a population of four million."

It is a testament to the work of the Golf Union of Ireland, who long ago implemented initiatives like ensuring all international players, at whatever age group, may play at all the best courses in the country. It is also a testament to the hard work of McGinley himself not to be left behind by Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington.

All three were involved in the denouement at the Volvo Masters, when Harrington defeated McGinley by a single stroke, and will be prominent again next year, when the Emerald Isle will host some of the biggest events of the season. Apart from the usual Irish and European Opens in the heart of the summer, the Seve Trophy match between Great Britain and Ireland and the Continent of Europe will be played at Druids Glen in April and the £3.5m American Express World Championship will be staged at Mount Juliet the week before the rearranged Ryder Cup in September.

McGinley, a former Gaelic footballer who turned professional 10 years ago, helped to secure his place at The Belfry with his third Tour win at the Wales Open at Celtic Manor, which was reduced to two rounds by the weather although it took the Irishman seven additional holes of a play-off to see off the challenge of Paul Lawrie and Daren Lee. There were also 11 other top-10 finishes during the season, his dozen in total matched by Harrington, who had to endure those seven seconds before winning at Montecastillo, and beaten only by the Order of Merit winner, Retief Goosen of South Africa.

"Overall, it was a good season for me with the win and a couple of seconds. I feel I have made progress," McGinley said. His eighth place on the Order of Merit, which should ensure starts in all four majors next year for the first time, was a personal best, while he rose from 66th in the world rankings to 35th, which should get him into the world championship events.

"My record over the last couple of years has been very good in terms of consistency, which I didn't have three years ago, and I am trying to use that as a springboard to 'go big'. The Order of Merit and the world rankings do not reflect the consistency of finishing seventh every week so much as the people who have the big weeks – winning or finishing second. That's just the way it is.

"I have realised you have to capitalise on your good days – hole those extra few putts to turn a 69 or a 68 into a 66. The standard nowadays is so high and so strong and there are so many guys who can do it. The game is at a different level compared to when I joined the Tour." McGinley feels three years of work with his coach Pete Cowen has now started to bear fruit, while he has also worked with the Belgian sports psychologist Jos Vanstiphout, who helped Goosen become US Open champion. "It's not brain surgery by any means. There are days when you are playing well when the hole seems to be as big as a bucket and it is about trying to recreate that feeling time and time again. At the same time, if you have a bad shot, you forget it and walk on to the next one.

"A lot of the reason for me not quite finishing the job over the past few years is to do with my attention span. Even at school I was a day-dreamer and too often I've been the same in golf, dreaming and letting myself slip, being there physically but not 100 per cent mentally. This year, though, I had a huge goal – to get into the Ryder Cup – and there was a marked improvement in my mental capacity.

"Belief comes from results. It's like building bricks and I'm certainly building bricks with my level of consistency. I'm looking forward to the future. I think there's a lot ahead of me."