Tony Jacklin deserves much of the credit for Europe turning the tables on the United States in the Ryder Cup over the last 20 years, according to current team skipper Paul McGinley.
Jacklin was the non-playing captain of Europe in four consecutive Ryder Cups from 1983 to 1989, leading his men to their first victory for 28 years in 1985, and to their first ever victory in the USA in 1987.
That opened up an unpreced-ented era of European domination of the event with European teams winning seven out of the last nine and five out of the last six.
“Tony Jacklin started that," McGinley replied when he was asked to explain how Europe had managed to clamp a stranglehold on the Americans.
“He moved things on to a professional level. He flew Concorde for the first time. He made sure the European Tour opened the coffers and invested in the players.
“He made sure they wore cashmere sweaters and their clothes fitted. He made sure he had everything they needed to have. So he started that template.
“He's a guy I’ve spoken to at length, really picked his brain and really see where he’s coming from, and I learned a lot from having chats with him.”
Another hero of McGinley from his teenage days was his rival captain Tom Watson.
He said: “He’s a guy I have a huge respect for as a human being as well as his playing record. In terms of what he’s been doing this week, I haven’t really been paying attention. I’ve got a lot of things on my agenda, I have 12 guys going on, 12 caddies, five vice captains, a lot of people, a lot of information that I’m processing at the moment.
“In regards to what Tom is doing with the team, I don’t even know what groups he’s going out with. I just know he’s going to make some good decisions and he’s going to have a strong American team out there.”
Jacklin led Europe to their first win in USA
