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Montgomerie touts Lyle for Ryder Cup captaincy

24/09/2008

Ryder Cup great Colin Montgomerie has called on Sandy Lyle to be made European captain for 2010, ahead of incumbent Nick Faldo.

The Englishman presided over Europe's first defeat of the 21st century at Valhalla last week, as the pre-tournament favourites slumped to a heavy 16½ - 11½ loss against the Americans to surrender the trophy.

Lyle is the only one of the 'big five' European golfers from the 1980s who is yet to captain the team - with Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer having already done so.

And ahead of the United States' return to the UK in two years' time at Celtic Manor, Montgomerie believes Lyle should be the man to take charge for the bid to reclaim the cup.

"I think it would be nice to see him," Montgomerie said.

"I feel it would be a shame if it wasn't Sandy."

When quizzed on Faldo's tactics at the 2008 event, which some pundits have blamed for Europe's defeat, Montgomerie hesitantly suggested he may have been tempted to go for a different order in the singles on the final day.

"The line-up of the singles was very important being 9-7 down. It had to be absolutely bang on," he said.

"[When I saw the order] it occurred to me that unfortunately [Ian] Poulter, [Lee] Westwood and [Padraig] Harrington were possibly our three strongest players and they might not be involved in the final shake-up [at numbers ten, 11 and 12].

"Play them earlier and they would have been involved 100 per cent.

"Only once in the whole history of the Ryder Cup has the number 12 decided the match, and that was Bernhard Langer in 1991."