With the US set to announce their 2014 Ryder Cup captain on
Thursday of this week, Europe’s emphatic comeback is back in the minds of the
golfing world; but who are the main candidates to take over the mantle and try
to lead the American side to a much needed victory?
After a solid performance in Australia last week, Tom Watson
put himself forward. The victorious 1993
captain, despite his age of 63, is surprisingly in touch with the current tour
and will have no problem seeing who is in form during the closing weeks of
qualification when that time comes. His
prolific Open record also makes him a favourite in Scotland, where the Ryder
cup is to be held and he is very popular on both sides of the Pond. His fantastic 2009 Open challenge cemented
his place as one of the games all time greats and this relatively recent
success places him fresh in people's minds too. I think it is always important to have a
player who can still compete at a certain level and it helps to have someone
with a solid personal Ryder Cup record.
While Tom Watson seems like a good choice and has obviously
stated his desire for the position, the bookies have David Toms as a firm
favourite. The 2001 USPGA Champion is
still very much a force on the PGA Tour, maintaining a ranking inside the Top
50 and the most recent of his 13 PGA Tour victories coming at the Crowne Plaza
Invitational in 2011 following a 2nd place finish at the Players Championship. David Toms comes across as a very friendly
player on the Tour and he has his fair share of supporters in Europe but I wonder
whether his attitude is not quite suited to captaining the side just yet, he could
quite easily still get a playing position of course as well. Don’t get me wrong, he definitely deserves to
be captain one day but with the events of this September still fresh I think it’s
fair to say that the American side are itching for another crack at the
Europeans and personally I don’t see Toms as a the man to lead them to a much
sought after victory. On the other hand
the Ryder Cup has been known to bring out the competitiveness in both captains
and players; I think we can all agree this was the case for Ian Poulter this
year. Who is to say the same won't happen in David Toms.
Perhaps an equally important question is whether this decision
will affect the choice of the European captain.
At the moment the bookies are favouring Darren Clarke who, like Watson
has enjoyed recent Major success which has put him in the limelight but also
Paul McGinley who famously holed the winning putt in the 2002 Ryder Cup. However there is also some speculation that
with the Cup returning to Scotland, the talismanic Montgomery who captained a
victorious side in 2010 should be reinstated.
Personally I think that Montgomery should be given the captaincy but am
also pretty sure that the decision process is well underway and whatever
decision is announced tomorrow by the US should not affect this.
Can’t wait for 2014 already, surely it can’t top this years
events though!
FF
FF
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