McGinley said with due modesty that it was probably no bad thing from his point of view that he was still playing among his troops.
In the wake of that reply, Watson went off at a tangent to say that he felt he had been "unfairly criticised" for being old.
"Maybe I am old,” he said, before asking his audience to look at the other side of the coin: "I’ve been there before and the players know that I know what they’re going through.” (The last time he attended a Ryder Cup was 20 years ago.)
There was more to suggest that he was not exactly au fait with the atmosphere at a modern Ryder Cup.
When speaking to an assortment of youngsters who had been included in Year to Go schedule of events, Watson advised this wide-eyed little party that the spectators in ‘14 would be clapping America’s missed five-footers no less eagerly than they had applauded one of his errant putts in 1977. “It’s one of those things you have to deal with,” he told them.
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