Two-time major winner Sandy Lyle has reiterated his desire to captain the European Ryder Cup team as they look to win back the trophy in Wales in 2010.
The Scot, who is the only one of Europe's 'Big Five' of the 1980s not yet to have captained the team, has been backed by Colin Montgomerie.
"I really appreciate Colin's kind words," said the 1985 Open Championship and 1988 US Masters winner.
"I would be delighted and honoured to take on the challenge at Celtic Manor."
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Of the five Major winners in Europe's glory years between 1979 and 1991, the so-called 'Big Five', Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and now Nick Faldo have all captained the Ryder Cup team, leaving Lyle as the odd one out.
Montgomerie, who failed to make the European team that were beaten 16½-11½ at Valhalla last weekend, said: "It'd be a shame if it wasn't Sandy. There's no other outstanding candidate."
Montgomerie, a former European number one, has previously said he would like to captain the team at Gleneagles in 2014.
But he 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."
Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal, the European vice-captain at Valhalla who had been one of the leading candidates for the 2010 captaincy, has ruled himself out.
"Whether he is ready to take that on in 2010 I don't know," European star Graeme McDowell said of Olazabal.
"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."
Thomas Bjorn is chairman of the players' committee that will decide the next Ryder Cup captain.
He has ruled himself out of the running and said there was no urgency to make a decision on the captaincy.
"I am only 37 and I don't think I was ever in the equation," he said.
"We're not in any rush and we've decided to let the dust settle over this one."
The matter could be discussed in Scotland next week but it will be a meeting in the Middle East in January where the captaincy will be put on the agenda.
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