McGinley resigns as Faldo's Ryder Cup vice-captain

By Norman Dabell

KILLENARD (Reuters) - Paul McGinley has resigned as Europe's 2008 Ryder Cup vice-captain, team skipper Nick Faldo said on Wednesday.

Faldo denied the Irishman's decision had anything to do with him not being chosen as one of the Britain and Ireland Seve Trophy wild-cards by Faldo, who is also the team's skipper this week in Ireland.

"I spoke to Paul last week and he said 'I've got a lot of events coming up'. I can sense the rumblings and then we spoke this morning and he decided to withdraw his position," Faldo told a news conference.

The Ryder Cup will be played at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky from September 16-21 next year.

"He told me he was really concerned about the workload that will be involved as vice-captain, because he wants to play himself into the team for Valhalla.

"Good luck to him. The man holed a winning putt on the Ryder Cup and that's the sort of player I want on my team."

Asked if his decision to overlook McGinley for the match against Seve Ballesteros's Europeans might be linked to the Irishman's move, Faldo said: "No, not at all. Playing is his priority. We chatted well together."

Faldo did admit McGinley had demurred when he asked the Irishman to accompany him this week at the Heritage, where the action gets underway on Thursday.