Lee Westwood has been installed as the overwhelming favourite to be the next European Ryder Cup captain after the 48-year-old intimated that he would be interested in taking on the role should he be asked.
Westwood has long been considered a future captain following his long and successful Ryder Cup career which began back in 1997 and has resulted in 11 caps and 24 points from 47 matches. Although he won his singles match against Harris English on Sunday, Westwood lost his two foursomes matches when paired with Matt Fitzpatrick on Friday and Saturday.
But with America having regained the trophy in such an emphatic way last week, the pressure is on Europe to win it back in Rome in 2023, and that starts by choosing a captain.
“I’ve played in lots of Ryder Cups and been a vice-captain in Paris and it’s something I’d love to do,” he said of a potential future captaincy. “I’m going to have to sit down over the next few months and weigh everything up. I still feel like I’ve got a lot of golf in me. I could have played my last Ryder Cup match on Sunday, but I’d rather it wasn’t, but I’m 49 next April, and the likelihood is it is.”
The Ryder Cup captain is selected by a five-man panel comprising the three most recent captains — Padraig Harrington, Thomas Bjorn and Darren Clarke — as well as representatives of Ryder Cup Europe and the European Tour’s tournament committee. There is no fixed time frame for the decision to be taken, with Harrington appointed four months after the win in Paris.
The committee is unlikely to consider appointing a captain who thinks he has a chance of being on the team, so Westwood, who will be 50 in 2023, will have to decide very soon whether he thinks he has a future as a team player or a team leader.
“I assume I’ll get a few months to think about it, but people keep coming up and saying, ‘Are you going to be the captain in Rome?’ I’d prefer to play, but Father Time’s not kind, is he?” said Westwood. “Being Ryder Cup captain is a massive honour and it is something I’d want to do,” he said. “It’s got to be some time in my future, but I don’t want to let go yet. I still feel competitive.”
Other potential candidates for the 2023 captaincy include Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose and Robert Karlsson, while Ian Poulter is already being talked about as a potential captain for 2025, when the matches are due to be held at Bethpage in New York.