Golf: Woosnam Set for Ryder Cup Captaincy

Barring a late intervention of an exceptionally cruel golfing god, Ian Woosnam will celebrate his 47th birthday today by being named Europe's captain for the 2006 Ryder Cup in Ireland.

However, in a break with precedent, Nick Faldo is likely to be earmarked as the man to lead the European squad for the 2008 contest to be staged in the United States.

The choice of Woosnam, who has appeared six times in the cup as a player and once, in 2002, as a vice-captain, was thought to have been rubber-stamped last night at a meeting of the tournament committee of the European Tour - comprising 14 players - after months of political manoeuvring and backroom lobbying more suited to the corridors of Westminster than the fairways of the European Tour.

The decision, which will be announced in Dubai today, owes much to the Welshman's popularity among his fellow players and a feeling that he has earned his chance to lead Europe in the biennial match against the US. It will not come as a surprise to anyone, not least to the two other candidates whose hats were in the ring, Sandy Lyle and Faldo.

Of those two, only Faldo was given serious consideration but, despite strong support among the younger generation of European players, who look up to him as a hero, he was rejected by a committee packed with older players who remember him as a semi-detached and aloof contemporary.

Nevertheless, a feeling has grown that the Englishman has an undeniable claim on the captaincy and giving him the role in 2008 is not only fair; it is also eminently sensible.

That feeling - which was voiced publicly yesterday by the former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallagher - is that Faldo would be better suited to leading the Europe team in the US, where the Englishman plies his trade these days as a television commentator.

"Nick had great success in America, is well known in America and by 2008 there will be different players in the frame, people like Luke Donald and Ian Poulter who looked up to Nick," Gallagher said.