Lee Westwood sets his sights on Ryder Cup captaincy in 2020
Ryder Cup veteran Lee Westwood has confirmed that he still harbours ambitions of becoming European captain but insists he is not ready to be Darren Clarke’s immediate successor.
The Englishman, part of Clarke’s beaten team at Hazeltine earlier this month, hopes to qualify as a player for a record-equalling 11th time when the competition is held next, at Le Golf National in Paris in 2018.
Failing that, the 43-year-old would prefer to serve as a vice-captain in France before taking on the ultimate responsibility two years later for the event’s return to American soil at Whistling Straits.
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“I certainly wouldn’t want to be the captain next time around – that’s too soon for me – but I think 2020 is definitely on my radar,” said Westwood.
“There are a lot of candidates for it but I’ll be putting my name in the ring for sure. It’s something I’d like to do. I’ve played on 10 and witnessed 10 different forms of captaincy, so I’m pretty well qualified.
“I’d like to maybe play again, but if I can’t play again I’d like to do the assistant captain’s role [to see] what goes on behind the scenes, although I paid a lot of attention to what Darren and the assistant captains were doing this year.”
Westwood is one appearance away from Sir Nick Faldo’s 11 Ryder Cups as a player, and two points shy of matching his career tally at the biennial event between Europe and the United States.
The former world No1 failed to win a point for Europe a fortnight ago as the USA won the Ryder Cup for only the second time in eight stagings of the competition.