FOUR years ago Paul McGinley walked around the Twenty Ten course at Celtic Manor offering up his opinion as one of the vice-captains of Team Europe. Yesterday he was back in South Wales with a different mindset, just eight days before the Ryder Cup heads for Gleneagles.

McGinley was an interested observer at Celtic Manor, watching four of the players he will captain in Scotland next week warm up for the ISPS Wales Open which starts today.

Before having dinner with Lee Westwood, Thomas Bjorn, Jamie Donaldson and Stephen Gallacher, he explained his part in setting the course up over the next four days.

He would have liked more of his European team to be involved this weekend, but he is not stressing about it. McGinley, sitting suited and booted at the head table of a packed media suite and in front of a Ryder Cup advertising board, was relaxed, full of smiles and cracked the occasional joke as his big week as Europe’s captain approaches.

There are unwanted distractions, namely the relationship between Northern Irish pair Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell who are involved in a court case with the former’s management company, and the absence of selected others, but McGinley thinks things are shaping up nicely. The quartet teeing off today, he thinks, will benefit greatly from being here.

“When I got the job I was well aware of the schedule and what was on the week before,” said McGinley. “I am pleased those who played in America last week are having a rest, they needed that because of fatigue.

“But in terms of the guys playing this week, I wanted to set up this course very similar to that they will face at Gleneagles and know that they will play it in a very competitive environment like the Wales Open.

“I have spoken to the guys involved with the Tour all the way through about setting up this golf course very similar, a European Tour set up. Some of our guys decided to prepare away, and I’m not going to say this or that, they know their game better than me, so I am not going to put pressure on them.”

Frenchman Victor Dubuisson pulled out of an appearance at Celtic Manor last Friday after deciding to concentrate on his game by working across the English Channel; McDowell is another notable absentee because he wanted to spend the extra time at home.

McGinley, who congratulated Hartlepool’s Graeme Storm on his second place finish at the Omega European Masters a fortnight ago ahead of the first round today, is determined to ensure that every member of his 12-man team is fully prepared even if they made the decision not to play this week.

“I’m meeting with the four players tonight (Wednesday) and their caddies, just a chit chat, nothing too difficult for them to take on board,” said McGinley. “I won’t be taxing them too much with too much information because I want them to relax and enjoy themselves before Gleneagles.

“I will give them an information pack, with some photographs of what it looks like at Gleneagles at the moment. There’ll be pictures of the first tee, the walk to the first tee, maps of the course, just sharing information really. They will all get it whether or not they are here.

“If we don’t win this Ryder Cup it will not be about complacency. We are very motivated and we know it is going to be a very strong American team, a very motivated American team so we under no illusions about how tough it will be.

“This will not be just about turning up and rolling them over. We have a slightly different threat to what we have had in the past, I suppose they are the underdogs and that can galvanise a team too. We will not be under-estimating the Americans, that’s for sure.”

Without giving much away, he hinted he will not avoid pairing McIlroy and McDowell together at Gleneagles just because of what is happening in court. A judge urged the pair to reach an out of court settlement on Tuesday to avoid the pair’s finances being exposed publicly as McIlroy’s legal battle with Horizon Sports Management also involves the affairs of someone who he has been paired with six times in Ryder Cup play.

That is of little concern to McGinley. The Dubliner’s priority is ensuring his plans and preparations are not affected for the visit of Tom Watson’s America, who are desperate to improve on a record of just one win from the last six Ryder Cups.

“My one worry is that you are at the very pinnacle of world sport,” he said. “You have 12 of the best players from Europe and 12 of the best players from America. This is top level sport. In top level sport anything can happen, as we all know.

“There was a big Gaelic football match in Dublin last week where Dublin played Donegal. Dublin were 1/10 at home. Dublin are a brilliant team, won last year, incredibly well prepared, a fantastic manager, a great record, and are on a great run of form.

“They were up against a Donegal side who had dropped down to Division Two, just coming back after a bad year. And Dublin went out and got beat. They got beat comfortably. That’s an illustration of what can happen in top level sport. I have to try to prevent that from happening to the best of my ability.”

At that he left the top table, displaying a confidence that his players can get the job done. Firstly, though, he will monitor the action at Celtic Manor, where Rockliffe Hall’s Touring pro Storm, Malton & Norton’s Simon Dyson and Harrogate’s John Parry are among the field looking to impress.