Paul McGinley delighted with his impressive start at British Masters
Friday 14 October 2016 18:46, UK
Paul McGinley reflects on an impressive start to the week at the British Masters supported by Sky Sports and discusses his future career plans.
Over the last month, I have been able to play some golf, which I haven't been able to do regularly for a while. This is only my sixth event this year on the European Tour, and I've only played six per season over the last couple of years.
But I played in Italy and at the Dunhill last week, and even though I missed the cut, I was still getting some tournament golf under my belt. I've put more miles on the clock in terms of balls hit and playing competitive golf, and I've hit the ball really well this week.
"I still feel I can be competitive and I'll pick out a couple of tournaments where I can be competitive."
The Grove is a long course for me, but my ball striking has been great and I've driven it really well. There's a big onus on me to drive the ball well on such a long layout by my standards. Hitting the fairways has been key for me here.
Obviously I'm delighted to be here playing for the weekend, and I hope to stay competitive over the last two rounds. I just want to climb that leaderboard as far as I can, and I'll do that if I continue playing like I have the first two days.
It was nice to have some momentum going into the weekend by finishing with a chip-in for birdie at the ninth. I was in between clubs with my second shot, I tried to hold up an eight-iron but I just caught it slightly heavy so it kind of fanned up into the wind and came up short of the green.
But I hit a great chip shot from the front there, and it was a bonus when I saw it drop in. I would have been happy to just get it up and down for par, so it was a sweet moment to hole it.
Me and Jimmy are still battling away, and by Sunday evening I think we'll be looking forward to getting on golf courses that are much shorter than this one!
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I'm planning to play on the Senior Tour next year, but I'll still play three or four on the European Tour. I still feel I can be competitive and I'll pick out a couple of tournaments where I can be competitive.
But I certainly won't be playing anywhere near a full schedule. I'm only averaging five or six starts over the last four or five years, and I'll probably do less than that next year.
I've played in the British Masters several times now, and it's fantastic to see a resurgence in the tournament. There's a new energy about it since Sky helped restore it to the schedule after a seven-year absence, and it was a huge success last year at Woburn.
I was in America this time last year, but I watched plenty of it on television and it came across really well. It looks like being a repeat success this year, we've had some really big crowds and it's a great venue being so close to London.
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