Olazabal new Ryder Cup captain

JOSE Maria Olazabal is a worthy successor to Colin Montgomerie as Europe’s next Ryder Cup captain.

He will take the helm when the European team attempt to defend the cup in America at the Medinah Country club in 2012.

I am sure he will be a competent captain, although he probably won’t be as good in the role as Colin Montgomerie, who always seemed like he was born for the part.

Olazabal was vice captain of the Ryder Cup team in 2008 at Valhalla and also last year at Celtic Manor.

He is best remembered for his Ryder Cup partnership with Seve Ballesteros. They played 15 matches together and they were only beaten twice. Olazabal said the following on Seve last week: “We understand each other totally. We saw the shots the same way and didn’t have to talk a lot. We were fighters who never gave up.”

In his singles matches he won two, lost four and halved one.

It was Olazabal who was involved in the infamous Ryder Cup at Brookline in 1999. He was playing Justin Leonard and Leonard holed a putt on the 17th green that looked like securing the cup. However Olazabal still had a putt to stay in the match, but before he could take it US players and wives ran across his line. He went onto miss the putt.

The opposing Ryder Cup captain will be Davis Love III.

Meanwhile it was pleasing to see Kenny Daglish’s first win in his second spell as Liverpool manager.

Let’s hope he can bring some much needed confidence back to the team.