Yesterday's decision by the European Tour's Tournament Committee to appoint Paul McGinley as the European Ryder Cup captain for 2014 was absolutely bang on the money.
The 46 year old Irishman was simply the only man for the job despite the late pleas of the man who captained Europe in 2010, Colin Montgomerie. It would have been absolutely outrageous if 'Monty' had been given the job again.
And I say that as someone who is from the same town as Montgomerie and you would also be hard pushed to find someone who was more disappointed when he blew his chance to finally win a major title at the US Open in 2006.
However, it is time to move on from this debacle and get behind McGinley who I think will be an excellent European captain at Gleneagles for many reasons. Firstly, he has the support of the entire team at Medinah, a large chunk of who will be members at Gleneagles too.
As seen with Nick Faldo's disastrous captaincy in 2008 (the only time Europe have lost the Ryder Cup in this century), if you don't have the support of the 12 men on the team, then you are already facing a massive uphill struggle to win the trophy. With Twitter support coming from the world's best two players in Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald plus the miracle man of Medinah, Ian Poulter, then it is clear for all to see who Europe's top men wanted as captain in 2014.
Factor in the support of successful former European captains Bernard Gallacher, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam and you quickly realise the Irishman isn't short of experienced heads to turn to for advice.
McGinley is one of these typical Europeans that come alive when the Ryder Cup comes around. He may give out a pretty calm persona most of the time, but he thrives on this sort of event. He was never on a losing side in three appearances between 2002-2006 and most famously holed the winning putt to win the Ryder Cup back for Europe at the Belfry in 2002.
There was a false perception going around before the decision was made to appoint McGinley that he wasn't a 'home captain' and the European committee simply had to pick someone to rival American captain Tom Watson. With all due respect, that was an utterly ridiculous opinion. McGinley might not be as passionate and charismatic as say a Seve Ballesteros or Ian Woosnam or indeed his opposite number Tom Watson, but he has tactical nous in abundance that can enable the Europeans to win again at Gleneagles.
There can be no arguing that the last two Ryder Cups have been absolutely thrilling as Europe have fought back to win them both. However, there was a real chance that we would be remembering Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal as losing European captains, rather than winning ones.
The true great European captains of the last decade were Bernard Langer and Ian Woosnam in 2004 and 2006 respectively when Europe won 18.5-9.5 on both occasions. I am not foolish enough to suggest that McGinley is going to lead his side at Gleneagles to this level of victory, but the best quality of Langer in particular was his incredible attention to detail.
McGinley will be another captain that will leave absolutely nothing to chance. He will make sure that every pairing is spot on and that every American player's strengths and weaknesses are analysed down to a tee. The Seve Trophy is not on the same scale as the Ryder Cup in terms of prestige, but it was this sort of planning in 2009 and 2011 that enabled McGinley as captain of the Great Britain and Ireland team to lead them to victories over continental Europe.
McGinley might not be as well known as Tom Watson, but he can match him in terms of motivation, tactics and organisation. You really can't ask for much more from a European captain.
Being European Ryder Cup captain is a monumental task for any man and McGinley will come under intense scrutiny until the event begins and during the three days at Gleneagles.
But as he has shown as a Vice-Captain in the previous two events and as a winning player on three occasions, he handles high pressured situations extremely well.
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