Sam Torrance has confirmed that he will not be standing for Europe’s 2004 Ryder Cup captaincy, insisting that he wants to go out on a high.
Prior to the last weekend's Ryder Cup Torrance, said that he would not be seeking the captaincy in 2004, but following Europe's historic win over the United States, he hinted that he might stay on and several of his team had called on him to remain.
Torrance claimed that if he was named as the 2004 captain, it would be a case of the heart ruling the head. "If selected I feel that I would be the sentimental choice rather than the reasonable choice for captaincy. By the time of the next matches I will have been on the senior tour for almost two years and won't have been playing with the players week in and week out as I did this time," he said.
"Without seeing the guys regularly I don't think I'd have the same rapport and wouldn't necessarily be able to recreate the team atmosphere that we so enjoyed last week," he added.
Bernhard Langer will now be the hot favourite to succeed Torrance, after Nick Faldo yesterday ruled himself out of the running.
Filed by Rob Wright
