By Martin Dempster

Copyright scotsman

Paul McGinley, a winning captain at Gleneagles in 2014, is quietly confident that Europe’s “roll of the dice” by spending two days at Bethpage Black this week can pay dividends in the 45th Ryder Cup. European captain Luke Donald and his 12 players were at the Long Island venue on Monday and Tuesday to prepare for next week’s trophy defence in the biennial contest. They’ve now gone their separate ways in the US before meeting up again on Monday as Europe bid to land a first away win since the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ in 2012. “We had a practice run-through, which all went very well, and had a good look at the golf course,” said McGinley, who was part of the get-together in his new role as the strategic director for the European team. “We had a few meetings, shared ideas, and had a bit of a dry run for next week.” Speaking on a NBC Sports Ryder Cup media conference call, the Irishman added: “So got a lot of back-of-house stuff done, which will help the players and Luke next week focus more on preparing for Friday morning, everything with the clothes and just getting a whole sense of where everything was on-site, where the practice range was and how the golf course was playing as well as meeting rooms and stuff like that that we’re going to be using. That was very beneficial.” Donald led Europe to a 16.5-11.5 victory at Marco Simone Golf Club on the outskirts of Rome two years ago and is heading into the contest with 11 of the 12 players from that team. However, the Englishman, who is bidding to join Tony Jacklin as the only captain to win home and away matches, has stressed that a different approach will be required to get the job done on US soil. “We’re coming at this Ryder Cup very, very differently than any Ryder Cup we’ve come at before,” said McGinley in emphasising that point. “We feel that we’ve really underperformed away from home. We just haven’t lost in three of the last four times; we’ve been resoundingly beaten. And we’re trying to correct that. “So we’ve looked at the Ryder Cup through a different lens than we’ve ever looked at an away one before. I think we’ve been guilty a little bit of trying to do what we did at home so successfully on the road, and the dynamics are obviously very different, particularly when it comes to playing in a very raucous atmosphere that’s rooting against you. “We’ve been trying to prepare the players for that. The trip we’ve done – two-and-a-half days together – is something huge that we’ve never done before. It was players, caddies, vice captains, captain, and me, and that was it. There were no wives. There were obviously some backroom team people as well, some doctors, physios, and stuff like that. But that was it. “It was a very small, tight-knit group. We had meetings. We played one-and-a -half rounds. And we got a real good look at the golf course and shared more extensive and elaborate ideas with each player about what their potential role is for the week and potential partners as well. This first practice trip is another roll of the dice.” According to McGinley, Bethpage Black is soft at the moment but could be firmer when the European players return for their first official practice round next Tuesday. “The rough is not as it would be in a US PGA or a US Open that has been played there before,” he reported. “The fairways are pretty generous at the moment because they’re soft. “Green speeds at the moment are probably running around 12, and they’ll probably move them up to about 13. And a couple of the tee boxes are moved up. 17 is moved up. It’s about 30 yards shorter than it was certainly for the US Open in ’02 when I played, and the first tee box has been moved up about 35 to 40 yards in order to get the stand in behind the tee. “All in all, it’s what we expected. It’s right out of the American playbook of what they do when they play at home. And they’ve been very successful doing it, so why change, which is generally rough, not too thick, greens quite fast, and trying to encourage a fast pace of low scoring. It’s proved to be a very successful tournament in the past when they’ve played at home.”