No decision on Ryder skipper

THE identity of Europe’s next Ryder Cup captain will not be known until January 2009 — at the earliest.

It had been expected that the European Tour’s tournament committee would discuss the contenders during their meeting at this week’s Dunhill Links Championship, with a view to naming Nick Faldo’s successor in January.

However, that meeting was taken up by the debate over the minimum number of tournaments required to be a member of the European Tour — subsequently increased from 11 to 12 — and the captaincy was not on the agenda.