Garcia: Poor English may hurt Jimenez

Darren Clarke’s quest to become the new European Ryder Cup captain has been given a surprise boost with Spain’s Sergio Garcia believing compatriot Miguel Angel Jimenez’s poor English will rule him out of captaincy contention.

The 2016 European team captaincy at Hazeltine now seems a clear-cut choice between Clarke and Jimenez, the Tour’s oldest champion.

However Garcia, a veteran of seven Ryder Cups along with being a vice-captain in 2010, believes the five-man committee to choose a successor to Paul McGinley may rule out Jimenez given his poor grasp of English.

“I know Miguel’s been a good Ryder Cup player and he’s also been a great Ryder Cup vice-captain but in becoming a captain is different.

“From the time you get appointed there is more than a year-and-a-half of activities, engagements, interviews and so on.

“So it’s important that everyone he speaks to over that long period understands exactly what he is saying because sometimes words can be misinterpreted, and being a Ryder Cup captain is being the spokesman for the Tour, the sponsors and so on, and then when competition gets underway there’s so many speeches he’ll have to handle.