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Lyle after Ryder Cup captaincy

13/10/2006

Sandy Lyle has admitted he would like to skipper the European Ryder Cup team for the match at Celtic Manor near Newport in 2010.

The 48-year-old Scot, a two-time major winner during the 1980s, was named as one of Ian Woosnam's assistants for the recent 36th Ryder Cup at the K Club in Ireland and he insists this has given him the taste to take on the top job.

But, speaking to the Guardian, Lyle admits time and opportunities are running out for him with Nick Faldo set to lead the team at Valhalla in two years' time and fellow Scot Colin Montgomerie rumoured to be after the role for Celtic Manor.

He said: "I don't have that ten or 15 years of waiting. I've only got a window of the next six years at most. What looks quite good timing would be 2010 at the Celtic Manor in Wales. That is the one I would be lobbying for."

Lyle has featured in five Ryder Cup matches as a player although his last appearance came almost 20 years ago in Europe's 15-13 victory at Muirfield Village in Columbus, Ohio in 1987.

Asked to compare the 1987 team to the recent one which won in Ireland, Lyle admitted they were fairly even although the greater major record among his team which included the likes of Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal perhaps just shaded it.

"It was a good team to beat America by the amount we did," he said referring to last month's 18½-9½ win. "People say the Americans didn't play well but we didn't allow them to.

"But if you look back at 1987 you had about 14 or 15 major titles in that one team if you added them up with myself, Ballesteros, Langer, Olazabal and Faldo. Yes, it was a great team in 2006, but it is hard to forget the 1987 team."

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