Paul Lawrie last night admitted he does not expect to be offered the European Ryder Cup captaincy for the 2014 match at Gleneagles.
The 43-year-old is back in action on Scottish soil in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship this week, just four days after helping Europe to a memorable triumph over the USA at Medinah. Lawrie, who aided the European charge with a fine 5&3 singles win over Brandt Snedeker, is in the form of his life and is currently 28th in the world rankings. The 1999 Open champion has made no secret of the fact he wants to play on the European team again when the Ryder Cup comes to Scotland in two years' time.
Lawrie, who made his Ryder Cup debut in the same year as he won the Open, has always been tipped as a future European captain, but insists the 2014 match could be too soon for him.
A European Tour Committee will gather in Abu Dhabi early in the new year to decide who will be the man to lead the cup defence. Asked if he would consider taking up the captain's armband if offered the role, Lawrie said: "I don't think they will [ask me]. If they did, it's a tough decision to make because not many people would knock it back I suppose.
"I would like to think that they would look at it and see that I was 27, 28th in the world and that it wouldn't be captain's time. They would know that I would be thinking about playing on the team. If they do offer me it, which I don't think they will, then it will be a huge decision.
"You don't know what's going to happen down the line but right now I feel very competitive at 43 and I can't imagine I'm going to be any less so in two years' time."
Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who were all part of Jose Maria Olazabal's backroom team at Medinah last week, are among the frontrunners for the captain's post at Gleneagles in 2014. "The Committee have a pretty tough job because we have three or four guys who are very capable of doing it," added the Scot.
Lawrie, who won the Dunhill Links title in 2001 and will have his teenage son Craig as his partner in the Pro-Am event, is keen to make a robust challenge on home soil. "I'm not one who stays in the past," he said. "It's time to move on. The Ryder Cup was huge but I need to focus on the Dunhill Links now."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article