Darren Clarke Zooms To Front Of '16 Captaincy Race As Padraig Declares He Is Now "Less Keen" For Job

Brian Keogh on Padraig Harrington's surprising remarks upon seeing the great and thorough job done by Paul McGinley has made him less enthused about pursuing the job as he still feels his game is good.

Harrington, a vice captain in 2014, was looming as a possible candidate along with Miguel Angel Jimenez for the 2016 job after fulfilling assistant driving duties last week at Gleneagles. Both would be hugely popular captain's to American crowds while Darren Clarke--despite reports saying he'd be popular here--does not have nearly the name or recognition of this year's vice captains.

From Keogh's report:

While he still wants to be captain, Harrington admitted: "I’m less keen than I was before. It does make you less keen. It is a lot harder than you think. There is a lot goes on.

The new captain will be chosen by the three immediate past captains — McGinley, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie — with the input of European Tour Chief Executive George O'Grady and a nominee from the Players Committee.

Keogh has a separate item on Paul McGinley assuring those who cared that he will not go out of his way to torpedo Clarke even though the 2012 Open Champion backed Monty for the 2014 captaincy. But McGinley also is far from committing to Clarke for his vote.

“Darren has been a vice captain along with many other guys, as well, too. So we will see where that all evolves and I certainly won't have no issues whatsoever with that.

“I'll make a professional decision based on the views of people that I respect.”

The new captain will almost certainly be named next January under a new system designed to avoid the politics that marred the 2014 captaincy race.

Comments

[Colin MacGillivray]

Paul McGinley must write a Handbook for the 2016 Ryder Cup Captain writing down how he did it. And it should be hand written in blue ink on variegated blue squiggly patterned paper so the one copy cannot be photo copied or scanned onto a pdf file, put on twitter google or the interweb or anything so there's only one copy ever for the next European captain.

[Lip Out]

Says the fool - you find fault with that statement? I have never understood claims of Clarke's popularity. He's clearly more than a little bit of a phony and, if measuring popularity in America (not that it should matter), would be a distant third behind MAJ and Padraig.

I thought Clarke's preening this past weekend was as transparent as it gets.

[Easy Go]

Lip Out the lack of veracity in that statement hinges on name recognition not popularity or phoniness.

[golfboy]

Lip Out,

Of the 3 (Miguel Angel, Paddy, and Darren), Darren is the most recent major champion and it was the Open Championship, which we all know is a European's crown jewel.

Hard to argue that a player who has never won a major such as Miguel Angel and is more well known for his crazy warm up routine than for his golf, would be less phony than Clarke.

Give it to Clarke in 2016, Miguel Angel in 2018, and Paddy in 2020 (when he realizes he's totally past his playing prime and will accept the captaincy to cash in one last time on sponsors etc).

[Easingwold]

golfboy, Jimenez, known for his crazy warm up routine than his golf ?

I don't think many would agree with you on that one

[Rose]

I am a massive Harrington fan and have been hoping for years that his game comes back. He has a lot of guts and a great work ethic but is there any sense that his quirky personality might not be a great fit for this job?

[Press Agent]

Any of these guys may one day make a great captain, but to suggest in any way that Miguel is any sort of phony is lunacy.

[\v.\lind]

Jimenez has a huge winning record. He was under some consideration as a possible pick. \and the players love him. \clarke has lots of mates -- and lots of anti-mates.

\harrington, despite his major record, seems a very poor choice. Thomas Bjorn would be far better.

Moi, I like Jean Van de Velde for France 2018. But I assume he will be running the show there.

[\v.\lind]

Jimenez has a huge winning record. He was under some consideration as a possible pick. \and the players love him. \clarke has lots of mates -- and lots of anti-mates.

\harrington, despite his major record, seems a very poor choice. Thomas Bjorn would be far better.

Moi, I like Jean Van de Velde for France 2018. But I assume he will be running the show there.