Given there were probably remote tribes in the jungles of Sarawak that had a decent inkling that Darren Clarke would be given the European captaincy for the 2016 Ryder Cup, you had to wonder why it took the five-man panel over two hours to confirm the news most folk were expecting?

Images plonked on an increasingly fevered internet yesterday morning showed Paul McGinley, Jose Maria Olazabal, Colin Montgomerie, George O'Grady and David Howell all sitting sternly around a boardroom table in Wentworth with sheets of paper and pens at the ready. Perhaps they were just poring over the breakfast menus and waiting interminably for Monty to decide whether he'd have poached or scrambled eggs?

There would have been many in the golf scribbling industry left with egg on their faces had Clarke not been unveiled as the new skipper but there would be no earth shattering surprises. It was, according to Montgomerie, a "unanimous decision."

Having commanded the support of the people who matter most in the biennial battle - the players themselves - the 46-year-old's ascension to the role was inevitable. Not to Clarke himself, mind you. "Was I expecting it? No I wasn't because I didn't know what way the committee would vote," he said after becoming the first Northern Irishman to be awarded the position of captain. "Was I hoping it was going to be me? Yes, obviously."

As a veteran of five Ryder Cups as a player and two as a vice-captain, Clarke has seen it, done it and amassed an attic load of officially branded t-shirts. Taking charge of a buoyant European team that has won eight of the last 10 meetings with the USA comes with its own pressures but Clarke is not going to add to the burdens by ringing the changes. It will be very much a case of business as usual. "If you look at the job Paul (McGinley) did at Gleneagles and how successful that event was, then I think it would be silly to move away from that," said the 2011 Open champion who will be attempting to lead Team Europe to an unprecedented fourth successive Ryder Cup victory. "It was so successful and the team bonding was unbelievable. I would also imagine they (the three wildcard picks) would stay the same. I wouldn't foresee any reason why we would want to change them because the system we have in place is a very successful one. It would be foolish of me to ask for any changes. I will obviously consult with other past captains and try to get as much information as I can to what was successful. But the way Paul did things the last time, it will be tough to get any better than that."

Given the fairly frosty relationship between Clarke and McGinley, it's hard to envisage them sitting down and sharing tea and crumpet but the collective European cause is more important than any personal animosity between two men. Unity is strength, after all. In the wake of his triumphant leadership at Gleneagles, McGinley admitted that he wouldn't want to go back to being a vice-captain. Yesterday, he reiterated that sentiment while expressing a willingness to pass on any advice that Clarke may require. "I won't be vice-captain, not for Darren or anybody," said McGinley. "I will give him any support he needs but at the same time it's important I step away too. Darren's now at the front so let him go ahead. It's not necessarily about following me or following Jose or following Monty or anybody who has done it before and won. It's about doing what's best for him and how he sees it."

Clarke's relationship with the Ryder Cup runs deep and his emotional performances in the 2006 match at the K-Club, where he won three points out of three in an event that was staged just six weeks after the death of his wife, provided some of the contest's most enduring images. "What I went through there was the perfect preparation for what I would ever face in the game of golf afterwards," he said. "Emotion is part and parcel of the Ryder Cup, we've seen that before from Seve (Ballesteros) and Jose Maria (Olazabal). I think European teams have been very successful in capturing that emotion and using it for their benefit."

Having lost more stones than a wayward curler with a new fitness regime over the past year, a slim-line Clarke is fighting fit and relishing the challenge. There won't be any wild celebrations to mark his appointment which, at least, should preserve the global Guinness stocks. "The job starts straight away so I've got to behave myself," he added. "And I'll try my best to keep my weight as it is."

That may be tricky. Captain Clarke already has the added weight of European expectation to deal with.