Home pro Paul McGinley saw a video nasty and crashed out of the Smurfit European Open at the K Club.

McGinley shot a second round 73 to miss the cut for the second year on the trot on six over par.

But he revealed that a video made by coach Pete Cowen has discovered the cause of all his problems.

Said McGinley: "I've got he club in a very shut position. The video has shown me that. I'm not getting back on my right side and whether that was caused by playing in the wind I don't know.

"I'm swinging the club badly and technically I'm very poor. My coach has been doing a lot of work with me and basically I've got the club shut and I'm getting back on my right side and that's causing the hook mostly.

"What can I say? Six over par for two rounds and I had four sixes in two days. At this level you can't do that."

McGinley started the day on five over par and was out of the reckoning when he went out in two over par.

Despite birdies at the 15th and 17t, a bogey six at the 606-yard 16th put paid to any hopes of a late comeback.

Now it is a case of back to the driving range for the 35-year-old Dubliner, just 11 weeks before his Ryder Cup debut.

"It's going to take a few weeks to get back into the swing of things but I can't remember a run as bad as this as a professional," he said.

"But I've got to play my way through it. Event though I didn't have three double bogeys like I did yesterday, I played a bit better. I'm not going to run away I'm going to stay and fight. I'm going to work hard at my game.

"Sometimes to correct if I open the face and hit it right. So technically I'd give myself four out of ten at the moment."

For the moment McGinley is not about to panic, despite making just two cuts from the last six.

"It's only six weeks and it's not a big deal. We've got to put things in perspective. I've played well before that. But with travelling in America and different conditions this year and the last six weeks have been poor. I've played six tournaments, made two cuts and missed four.

"I'm not putting pressure on myself. I've got to sort out my swing and at the moment the ball is going left and right.

"When it's going one direction you can sort of control it but when it's going in both it's difficult."

McGinley denies that his problem is mental rather than physical.

"No, it's not really mental. My confidence is going when I'm swinging it badly and you can't be strongly mentally when you are hitting so many wides.

"I'm not getting the ball in the correct position. We've had a lot of wind on the tour this year but I don't want to blame the Irish PGA in Westport. It's easy to blame Westport.

"We had the best of the draw and I didn't take advantage of it and played really poorly."
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© Brian Keogh 2002

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