2010 - Colin Montogomerie.

Shame it couldn't be Woosie but good luck to Colin who I hope will do a great job.

It was always gonna be him, then olly in 2012.

huge win for eu next time i think

Not a good choice I'm afraid

Good luck Monty.  Keep the sandwich list in your pocket!

I think that is a bad decision. Monty is not ready yet. Hes not played well himself for the last 2 years alongside the players he is suppose to be inspiring. (Not like Capt. Tim Hawkins) I would have waited until after Ian Woosnam.

Woosie would have been perfect for morale and kept things light hearted and brought back some team spirit.

The choice of Captain is purely academic IMO. Only the players can win and the Captain has no control on the guy who is actually swinging the club. They are either up for it or they are not.

If Faldo had not been let down by the so called star players in his side then we would have won.

Having played many of these kinds of matches as an ex cvounty player I know that the Captain has no influence whatsoever.

No doubt the press will hype it all up, but bottom line is the players themselves must want it.

We are talking about the best players in Europe at the time and if they cannot play together then what is the point.

Doesnt the captain pick two of these players though? Surely that makes a difference.

Yes, he does, Lee and if you cast your mind back the two players Faldo picked performed exceptionally well when compared to the prima donnas, who made no effort IMO to support him.

Harrington, our supposed star player was dismal and it was obvious that he had no intention of playing for Faldo by questioning the selection of Poulter over Clarke.

Poulter 4 points out of a possible 5 tells it all really.

I would of thought Monty would have liked to have played in the ryder cup seeing as he got left out last year.

I think the captain does have some sort of effect on the team, I know he can't swing the club for them but he must surely decide on pairings, practice rounds, starting positions which might make a difference to the players overall preperation?

I don't like Monty - I don't like the way he swings the club - I don't like his attitude ("you're only here because of me" - and I don't like his hair style.

Also, If he gets to the team breakfast table before the rest of the team we are going to have one undernourished team playing golf out there.

Touche Mr Bond

I still think that Sandy Lyle should have been captain for this event.

Russ

I was under the impression that after missing out on the last Ryder cup, Mrs Doubtfire was determined to play his way into 2010 instead of captain.

Good luck to him and time will tell what kind of captain he will be

Lyle stormed off halfway round an event, I'd never consider him for anything now

My sentiments exactly, Wayne. Lyle is a disgrace to the profession.

John F. Practice rounds have nothing at all to do with the actual match, so can be discounted. Pairings are only important as to how each player feels about his partner, but as they are the top prpofessionals then it should not make the slightest difference. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it is easy after the result is known to be able to pick the pairings and positions to have won the match.

Faldo lost the Ryder Cup, not because his singles positions were wrong, but because his mainstays failed to produce.

Very true John, on the whole apart from Casey & Poulter the team well under performed. Which begs the question did the U.S. win it or was it given to them?

In the whole of my life watching and supporting the Ryder Cup, I have never ever come across such a  media frenzy when Faldo was first chosen to lead and continuing with adverse comments about his free pick selections, which, in the end showed that he knowws more about this game than any of them.

No previous Captain ever has had to put up with such derogatory comments leading up to the Ryder Cup itself.

Because Faldo has always had confidence in his game and himself, the media portray this as arrogance, much like the way they deal with Poulter now.

I stood by Nick when he was appointed and rightly so, and I still stand by him when his players clearly wanted to show him they were bigger than him and I'm sorry but nobody has done more for golf than Nick over the years. Many of those so called "big names" should be hanging their heads in shame, because they clearly gave the match to the USA.

He has proved himself on many occasions with his skill and committment, and continues to do so with his knowledge & experiences.

The Europeans just weren't up for the fight and some didn't seem to care if they won or not.  The key exceptions were the captains picks.  In comparison, the yanks looked really mattered to them, acted like this really mattered to them, played like it really mattered to them and behaved it like really mattered to them and that got the crowd up and behind them.  Despite some deplorable actions by some spectators (sledging is for cricket, not golf) and the f*#%ing annoying "Get in the hole!" on every shot (including off the tee of the par fives!) the crowd support did work in their favour. 

John, I like Sandy Lyle - I think your comments about him being a disgrace are a bit harsh. There could be any number of justifiable reasons for him walking off after 9 holes...............if only I could think of one to back up argument.......

Hard isn't it Mark?

he was playing sh#*e, but the difference between most of us and him is we see the round out. he was +10 when withdrew wasn't he?

He had taken the place of an up and coming professional yet had the gall to pack it in and leave his partner/s. Not on in my book. He should be ashamed of himself.

I'm referring to last years open, so did Lyle drop out of a ryder cup as well?  don't be too harsh on me as i've only been playing 18 months and still quite young so don't remember.

No, Paul he did not drop out of a Ryder Cup, it was the Open Championship, where he only got in being a past winner, so by retiring/withdrawing he had taken a space that would have been welcomed by the next on the list.

No Paul it was just lat year's open which he had an automayic invitatiion for - being a past winner and all that which makes his behaviour even more despicable in my view, and he should never be considered for the captaincy  - as John says.

I'm not a Monty fan - seems to be to moody for a Ryder Cup Captain and some of his petulant antics on the course are quite laughable. He seems to take things so personnally as in the famous British Open at Muirfield where he set a record of 20 shots difference between successive rounds in an Open and then refused to be interviewed on telly, etc. If the chips are down god help the European Team.

Got you John, when you said partner/partners it threw me alittle.

Up until that incident I had always admired Sandy, and the shot from the bunker at the last to win the Masters was majestic. A full seven iron struck right over the pin and with enough backspin to bring it back nearer to the hole. When the putt went in it really was the icing on the cake.

Surely the media will turn their attention to the Pairings for Wokefield Park soon anyway.

Seeing as the Captain only just managed to get his name down in time to even be at Wokefield I cannot really see how he is going to get the time to even consider pairings.

Cheers Kevin, i thought i was on the right track.

Monty: did anyone watch the riffa views opening where they had a skins match, villiegas, goosen,campbell and doubtfire, he is seriously up his own arse in everything he does, proper spoilt little boy a times so like you said god help us.

I think Monty has a tremendous record in pro golf, one that he can be rightly proud of.

All those Order of Merit wins did not come easy, but he has been his own worst enemy in the way he has conducted himself both on and off the course and unfortunately everyone remembers the bad more than they remember the good.

Having said that I will be supporting him as the Captain and sincerely hope that he does bring the cup back to these shores.

John, do you think he's ready to captain the ryder cup side yet? or would you have preferred he got 2012 instead.

John - I will always back whoever the European Ryder Cup captain is - but Monty seems to create more enemies than friends of late. You can't say anything against his great successes as a player, but it is a NON-PLAYING CAPTAIN, so the off-field behaviour comes more to the fore - and I can't say I've been impressed with him off-field or with his body-language.

In a nut-shell I hope that I'm wrong.

Paul, it is not up to me to judge whether or not he is ready to Captain the side, after all it just seems as though it is a job for the boys as when it comes around to their turn.

There's two fat blokes on here with T@ts (Me & Santo) are a bit jealous at how much attention the other fat bloke with t@ts is getting!

Paul It would not be advisable for Monty to chair the 2012 venue as it's in the U.S. they would pull him to pieces.

John P,

I agree that at the last event the players did not hold up their end of the bargain but I still believe that different people can bring different qualities out of each individual. You've only got to look at the Premier League to notice the difference a quality manager can do for results. It's the same scenario, he picks the tesm & let's them get on with it but it must be something in the team talk or tactics that makes a difference.

What would be interesting would be if the players that automatically qualify for the event are given the casting vote on who the captain should be out of a shortlist, then their would be no argument on people not showing loyalty on the course. It will never happen but it would be interesting.

Dave / Santo - get your t!ts out for the lads

John.

Dave / Santo - Don't you bloody dare, I've not had my tea yet!

I am quite sure that every member of the side tries to play their best golf. We also know that this is not possible all of the time, even for the top pros.

We also have to accept that, on the day someone else can play just that little bit better than you.

Only hindsight, after knowing who scored what can one then manipulate the pairings or porition to get the result one was looking for.

I have won county matches shooting level par yet lost shooting 69. That's how it goes. So what you are saying is that the Captain has to somehow have the foresight to pair me against an opponent who is not going to score as well as me. Ridiculous.

John,

I'm not saying that he has to have hindsight, I was merely trying to say that different Captains have different methods of 'geeing' up their team. I felt that the atmosphere at the last Ryder cup with the Europeans was nowhere near as intense as other ryder cups.

My comment on the pairings was aimed at making sure that the best partners get put together to produce their best golf. If they shoot 10 under but lose to a pairing that shot 11 under then that's just unlucky.

John.

I think we have to accept that the Americans played the better golf and deserved to win. The blame for the defeat cannot and should not be laid at Faldos door, that is all I am saying.

I was not there so cannot comment on whether the European team seemed buoyant, but I would have thought that being selected is an honour that should not be taken lightly and even if they hated the guts of Nick, should still have performed to their best abilities.

It is impossible to know what the best pairings are going to be on a given day.

I agree with you John that the fault is not Faldo's, as with all team events you win aa a team & you lose as a team.

I would have thought that previous pairing results, practice rounds etc would give an indication of what 'could' be a possible good pairing.

Of course some pairings will be better than others for all different kinds of reasons.

My regular foursome partner, Barry Reeves. for Open events was great to play with, because it did not matter where I put him, he considered it a challenge and he used to get me out of jail regularly.

My regular partner for the County side was Tony Hill, ex president of the EGU and came from old money, so you can imagine he spoke with a plum in his mouth, lived in a monster house at Burnham but we struck up a rapport, enjoyed each others company and had a fairly good success rate in the matches we played together in.

How do you form indications, take the furore over Clarke after he won that tournament in the far east, everyone wanted him included as a wild card. The following week he was a disaster, so how do you know.

They have set up a system for picking the team, not that I totally agree with it and the Captain has two picks. His choice and his choice alone and no attempt should be made by the media to put forward other names, because of sentiment.

Good luck to Monty in his captaincy, but not a good choice IMHO, similair to Faldo in that I feel his personality (or lack of) will disrupt the harmony of the team, a Captain needs to be capable of getting that little bit extra from his team using all the motivational skills he possesess, unfortunatley Monty comes across as lacking in that department, hopefully I'm wrong and he turns out to be totally different from the huffing arogant personality we see on our tv screens.