McGinley Delivers "Shock Departure" On Pairing Rory & GMac

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That didn't take long!

Perhaps sensing a rare Monday news dump opportunity, European Captain Paul McGinley, reversed course and now sounds unlikely to pair the the veteran Ryder Cup duo of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.

In my roundup of Fleet Street coverage at The Loop, note the skepticism in coverage from The Telegraph's James Corrigan and The Guardian's Ewan Murray, the two most consistent followers of McGinley's term as captain. Neither could characterize McGinley's Monday comments as anything but a shock and hardly believable after months of suggesting the legal row involving McIlroy and GMac was not going to be an issue.

AP's Doug Ferguson took McGinley at his word in this report of Monday's reversal.

McGinley's comments in their entirety, including the dreaded V word:

PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, it's not an issue and it's not been an issue for me in terms of Ryder Cup captaincy since -- over the last year, certainly, since these court proceedings started. Both of them have assured me all along that there's no issues, and that's the way I've always seen it. Whether they come together or not is another story. Three or four months ago, I had a very strong view that they would have been, but the more I look at their statistics and the more I look at the different value I have with them, I'm thinking there may be a value in not doing it. But if I don't do it, it certainly won't be because of any issues. As both of them have said, there are no issues between them and both of them will be happy to play together but it will be my decision ultimately.

As I noted on Morning Drive, imagine if the situation was reversed and Bubba's lawyers had issued subpoena's for private business dealings from Webb as the two were about to play as partners in the Ryder Cup? The stories of American discord would have been flowing!