Montgomerie backs Lyle for 2010

Colin Montgomerie wants fellow Scot Sandy Lyle to captain Europe's Ryder Cup team in Wales in 2010.

Lyle is the only one of Europe's 'Big Five' of the 1980s who has not yet captained the team.

And Montgomerie, who failed to make the team beaten at Valhalla, said: "It'd be a shame if it wasn't Sandy. There's no other outstanding candidate."

He also questioned Nick Faldo's tactics of sending Europe's big stars out in the last three singles matches.

"I'd have voiced concerns that [Ian] Poulter, [Lee] Westwood and [Padraig] Harrington are probably our top three players and they might not be involved in the Ryder Cup singles, as was the case," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Play them earlier and they would have been involved 100%. Only once in the whole history of the Ryder Cup has the number 12 decided the match - Bernhard Langer in 1991."

Seve Ballesteros, Faldo, Langer and Ian Woosnam have all captained the Ryder Cup team, leaving Lyle as the odd one out.

Montgomerie said: "Ian Woosnam did such a great job in Ireland and who's to say he couldn't do it again in his home country, but Sandy's time is around now and he hasn't done it before so you'd have to put him as favourite."

606: DEBATE
"It's time people got off Nick Faldo's back, it's getting irratating"
Martin007

The Scot, who has previously said he would like to captain the team at Gleneagles in 2014, added that at 45 he was not ready for the captaincy himself "whether offered or not", explaining: "I hopefully haven't played my last shot in the Ryder Cup."

Graeme McDowell, who scored 2.5 points out of a possible four on his Ryder Cup debut, said Faldo had been a "fantastic captain - well prepared and he had done his homework".

The Northern Irishman told 5 Live: "We ran into a team that was just unbelievable. The standard of golf blew me away, it was incredible.

"There are a lot of great names in the pot but there is no doubt Faldo is going to be a tough act to follow"
Graeme McDowell

"In hindsight we should have played our best players up front, simple as that. It was frustrating that we didn't need the last four games when we had them so stacked at the back - Westwood, Harrington, Poults playing as well as he was, and my own game as well. It was disappointing not to be needed."

European vice-captain at Valhalla, Jose-Maria Olazabal, would "make an unbelievable Ryder Cup captain" said McDowell.

"Whether he is ready to take that on in 2010 I don't know. I think he is dying to get back on the course himself and I am sure he has got some quality years left in him.

"We have got a lot of potential great captains. They could bring Woosie back and that would be special, being in Wales.

"There are a lot of great names in the pot but there is no doubt Faldo is going to be a tough act to follow."

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