Darren Clarke eager for Lee Westwood to book Ryder Cup place

The 2016 Ryder Cup is September 30 to October. 2 at Hazeltine in suburban Chaska, the site of the PGA Championship in 2002 and 2009.

The battle for golf’s storied Ryder Cup has begun with a friendly exchange between team captains in Minneapolis.

He is relishing captaining Team Asia and believes that Asian players are now more than capable of out-witting their European counterparts in team competitions, with four Asian players qualifying for the Presidents Cup side to face the Americans in South Korea next month. I think it’s more exciting.

Jeev added: “It’s an honour to be offered the EurAsia Cup captaincy and I am very excited by the prospect of leading what I hope will be a very strong Asian team”.

Clarke, confident that a similar incident would not happen under him, said Ryder Cup teams are briefed by referees and rules officials early in the week and players never touch a ball until they hear from their opposite numbers or the referees.

Unfortunately for the last few years, Europe’s gotten it on Sunday right when they needed it. We go back to ’99 with Ben Crenshaw, somehow we got it that Sunday morning and rode it all day. They understand what golf’s all about and they are going to make great champions and great leaders for our tour for the future. Everybody is trying to win out there and make the most out of it – I think rivalry is what gets the best out of a player in many ways. But I think we will have our players ready. “You may not think that from the way he’s been scoring, but the stats are actually very good”.

As part of the findings of the task force, a greater emphasis for the U.S. Ryder Cup effort will be promoting a certain continuity in the leadership pipeline, with more vice captains advancing to captain down the road.

The Solheim Cup descended into acrimony when Pettersen refused to express regret about her conduct in the immediate aftermath, and the United States of America were so outraged they produced a stunning comeback to win the trophy 14.5-13.5 after trailing 10-6 going into the singles.

Davis Love III and Darren Clarke, respective captains of the US and European teams for the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National in Minnesota, said on a conference call that it was important for the biennial event to showcase why the sport is widely known as a “gentleman’s game” based on fair play.

Casey, who made a comeback this season with eight top-10s including a T5 finish at the Tour Championship, is ineligible to play on Darren Clarke’s 2016 European Team because he is not now a member of the European Tour. But we’ll handle it as gentlemen and a sportsmanlike way.