By John Harrington

Irish professional golfer, Paul McGinley, doesn’t think his friend, former Donegal football manager Jim McGuinness, will return to Gaelic Games any time soon.

McGuinness, who managed Donegal to the 2012 All-Ireland SFC title, recently left his position as an assistant-coach with Chinese Super League outfit Beijing Sinobo Guoan.

And when McGinley spoke to the media at the 2018 GAA Games Development Conference in Croke Park last Saturday he revealed that McGuinness has big plans for the future.

“I spoke to him last week,” said McGinley. “Jim's okay. He's on a plan. He's on a plan and a lot of things are confidential that I can't talk about but he's on a plan.

“He's got one year to go before he's fully qualified and he's flying through his exams and doing great.

“He's learning every word, he's going to conferences all around Europe.

“A big connection obviously with Celtic and he's on a plan. Don't worry about Jim McGuinness. He's not coming back to the GAA, put it that way.

“The Dubs can take a big, deep breath!”

McGuinness is committed to a continued career of coaching or management in professional football and is currently close to achieving his UEFA ‘A’ coaching licence.

“I think he's a year away from that,” said McGinley. “He's been flying through his exams, he's on a good path. It's tough, he's basically going back to school and re-learning.

“It's not easy and he has lots of kids, as you say, and family commitments. His family are living over in Glasgow now, so it's tough, it's not easy for him.

“But he's got a lot of ambition, a lot of determination.”

When McGinley captained the European Ryder Cup team to victory over the USA at Gleneagles in 2014, he invited both McGuinness and Dublin manager Jim Gavin over to Scotland as his guests for the weekend.

He has huge admiration for both men and their managerial ability, and has always made a point of keeping what they tell him about the secrets of their success in strict confidence.

“Jim (Gavin) knows exactly where I am with Jim McGuinness so we're very careful with that line.

“I certainly wouldn't breach any confidence on either side so I've got to be very careful how I play that.

“Jim Gavin is way too clever for  me to do that anyway. And he certainly wouldn't be asking me any questions in that regard. 

"Yeah, I know Jim Gavin too, he also came to the Ryder Cup as my guest, and I like to think I'd consider him as a guy I'd really admire.

“I really admire what he's done with Dublin. His clinical approach, the respect that the players give him, the way the players behave.

“The clinical of how he approaches each game is pretty impressive.”

McGinley believes both men share some traits that have helped make them successful managers, but also sees an obvious contrast in their personalities.

“Yeah, there are similarities, but there's more emotion in Jim McGuinness,” he said.

“Jim Gavin is like a pilot. He's trained as a pilot, he's trained as an army man, and to a large extent you've got to leave your emotion aside.

“I believe the criticism he got about not having emotion...on one side I can understand that but on the other side I know from myself that any time I've been a captain I've made a conscious effort to leave that emotion to the side because how can you make a really cold, clinical decision if you're really getting emotional.

“You've got to be some way detached and it's a mindset. Tiger Woods talked a lot about lowering his heartbeat when he was at his best.

“And if he did get excited the first thing was to try to lower his heartbeat again because he couldn't make decisions if emotion was driving him.”

McGinley sought the advice of both McGuinness and Gavin before and during the 2014 Ryder Cup because there were elements of GAA culture he felt could help get the best out of the European team.

“A lot of the concepts that are applicable in the GAA are absolutely applicable when managing (the Ryder Cup team),” said McGinley.

“The Ryder Cup is an evolution of the GAA if you think about it," he said. "We're all from a different county.

“You have to represent your county or town that you're from. You're playing for your people and the jersey of where you're from.

“I brought that principle that we have in Ireland with our counties and I took it to the Ryder Cup and just made it about countries.

“Martin Kaymer, for example, his conversations were around Germany. Sergio's were around Spain.

“It wasn't just a faceless blue flag of Europe. It wasn't about doing this for Europe, it was about doing it for the people of Spain.”

McGinley has won fame and fortune as a professional golfer and victorious Ryder Cup captain. 

But he probably wouldn’t have gone down the golfing path had a knee injury not put paid to his dream of becoming a Dublin Gaelic footballer when he was just 19.

You might think that knee injury was the best thing that happened considering the successful sporting path it sent him down, but McGinley still regrets not having the opportunity to develop into the best footballer he could have been.

“Absolutely,” said McGinley. “My hero was Kevin Moran because he had the best of both, because he was able to play both.

“In an ideal world I wanted to be Kevin Moran. I know him very well and I've so much admiration for him because he's been three things I want to be really success at.

“He's an All-Ireland winner, he's played football for Man Utd at the top level and now he's a successful business man. He's three big boxes ticked in his life, what an achievement in his life he's had. Of course I do.

“I would have loved to have another two years of GAA. I was 19 when I did my knee. I'd have loved to have a crack at...even getting on the Dublin panel would have been a great achievement.

“I guess if I'd have done two more years I probably wouldn't have been a golfer. In terms of where I was at, that was the last point of no return in terms of being a golfer.

“Life propelled me in that direction. I've been lucky in a lot of ways."

*** Irish golfer and former Ryder Cup captain, Paul McGinley was at Croke Park at the weekend to discuss the importance of teamwork at the GAA Games Development Conference in partnership with Sky Sports.**

Paul’s attendance at the event is part of Sky Sports’ commitment in supporting the GAA at grassroots level. Throughout 2017 to 2021, Sky Sports will invest €3million over a five-year period into grassroots which will include leveraging its links to world-class elite sportspeople across three initiatives; the GAA Games Development Conference; the GAA Youth Forum and the GAA Super Games Centres.

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