English golf writer's controversial opinion

Sandy Lyle has not got

what it takes to be

Ryder Cup captain

From Times Online Website

By JOHN HOPKINS

From time to time you hear calls for Sandy Lyle to be made captain of Europe in a Ryder Cup, some of the calls from himself. With eyes currently focused on the Scot as he competes in the Seniors British Open at Royal Troon the support can only grow.

"My name's in the hat for 2010" Lyle said this week. "I feel more prepared now than I did four or five years ago."
Let me say one thing on this topic. Sandy Lyle should not be made a captain of Europe.
Sentiment is powering this campaign and sentiment should not play a part in this decision. If captaincy were given out on the grounds of popularity then Lyle would do it for as long as he liked and then hand over to David Howell.
Lyle has won two major titles and served golf heroically as a player. He competed five times in the Ryder Cup and was in the world top ten for 167 weeks between 1986 and 1989. But do those achievements guarantee him the right to lead 12 of the best golfers from Europe against the Americans? In my view they do not.
The most important question is: is he up to it? I do not believe he is.
There are two reasons for saying this and I am indebted to a wise Scottish friend who named the first, saying: "Sandy doesn't have the guile for the job." If Lyle did have the guile, why is it only now that he has declared an interest in doing the job?
Guile matters. So does being street wise. So does fighting your corner, dealing with any verbal barbs that might come Europe's way. So does the ability to lead. Would one have confidence in Lyle's ability to make the right decision when he has 30 seconds in which to make up his mind and no one to talk to?

The way Lyle walked out of the Open last week, for which he has apologised and now regrets, suggest he might not choose the correct option.
The second reason is that captaincy is about being a leader, a man others will follow by reason of his character, force of personality, skill or a combination of all these. Lyle is not a leader. Faldo is a leader, one not afraid to plot a course and stick to it regardless of what others think. Ballesteros was a leader. Langer was a leader.

Tony Jacklin was the best leader of all. Thomas Bjorn, who has expressed an interest in becoming a Ryder Cup captain, is a leader and so is Colin Montgomerie.
Jose Maria Olazabal and Ian Poulter are leaders, Luke Donald and Miguel Angel Jimenez are followers and I am not sure yet about Paul Casey. Padraig Harrington might be able to choose a course for himself, but would he be able to explain anything to his men in a concise way they could understand? He's a follower not a leader.

Ken Schofield was a leader, George O'Grady a follower who is slowly becoming a leader.
Sam Torrance was a follower when the Ryder Cup authorities announced him to be the 2001 captain and when, at his first press conference as captain he had to be prompted in some of his answers by Suzanne, his wife who was sitting alongside him, there were a few of us who wondered whether he was a good choice.

Torrance, however, grew from being a follower to a leader.
David J Russell is a follower, so is Des Smyth, so is Peter Baker. All three have been captain's assistants or vice-captains in Ryder Cups. That is the role for Lyle.