Olazabal won't return as Ryder Cup captain

LONDON (AP) — Describ­ing the role as “tor­ture” at times, vic­to­ri­ous Ryder Cup cap­tain Jose Maria Olaz­a­bal ruled out the pos­si­bil­ity of stay­ing on for the 2014 com­pe­ti­tion at Gleneagles.

The Spaniard returned to Europe on Mon­day night, cradling the gleam­ing golden tro­phy and still rev­el­ing in Europe’s stir­ring rally over the United States at Med­i­nah on Sunday.

Spain’s King Juan Car­los and ten­nis star Rafael Nadal were among those who sent Olaz­a­bal mes­sages of con­grat­u­la­tions after the 14½-13½ win that kept the cup in Euro­pean hands.

But after seven matches as a player — dur­ing which he teamed up so effec­tively with the late Seve Balles­teros — and now another as a win­ning cap­tain, he has come to the end of his 25-year Ryder Cup career.

“I can assure you it will be a no, period,” Olaz­a­bal said when asked if he would stay on. “It’s a lot of work … it takes a lot out of you for a stretch of time. It is dif­fi­cult. In a way, it’s torture.

“On top of that, there are a lot of play­ers who should have the oppor­tu­nity to be in my spot. The Ryder Cup is only played once every two years and there are a big num­ber of play­ers that have the chance to be in my posi­tion. I won’t do it again.”

Dar­ren Clarke and Paul McGin­ley, two of Olazabal’s four assis­tants in Med­i­nah, are early favorites to take over.

A deci­sion will be made in Jan­u­ary by the Euro­pean Tour’s tour­na­ment com­mit­tee, headed by Thomas Bjorn, another of Olaz-abal’s assistants.

“I think these two (Clarke and McGin­ley) deserve a chance but I think Thomas deserves a chance and also Paul Lawrie,” Olaz­a­bal said. “Once those guys do it, we have Lee (West­wood), Padraig (Harrington).

“We have at least eight or nine guys that have the chance and there only a cer­tain num­ber of Ryder Cups. It would be hard to name just one or two.”

And what about Ian Poulter?

The Eng­lish­man won a match-high four points in Med­i­nah, includ­ing one in Saturday’s four­balls that Olaz­a­bal con­sid­ers the most impor­tant of them all.

The win brought Europe within 10–6 and gave the team cru­cial momen­tum head­ing into Sunday.

Poul­ter now has the best win­ning record of any Euro­pean who has played more than two Ryder Cups and his pas­sion for the event has seen him described as the “modern-day Seve.”

“He will be a won­der­ful cap­tain for sure,” Olaz­a­bal said. “But he will need another 12 play­ers just like him.”

Posted by Jon Kleinknecht on Oct 4 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.