Old rivals vie for Ryder role

GOLF: Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo are ready to go head to head in their bid to emulate Sam Torrance and captain a Ryder Cup team to victory in Europe.

While Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer are vying to lead the team in the US in 2004, Montgomerie and Faldo both want the job in Ireland in 2006 when the Americans visit the K Club in Co Kildare.

"Very much so," was the emphatic response from Montgomerie yesterday when asked if he was a candidate. And Faldo wants to be in the running as well.

"It's gone from not being spoilt for choice to people queuing up," said Faldo, who intends to make up for the disappointment of not being part of this year's winning team at The Belfry by gearing his next year's programme to earning a place in the team for 2004.

The six-time major champion, who has been suffering from elbow trouble, said: "The goal next year is to have an easier time until September and then make a decision on how hectic to make my schedule to make the team."

But Montgomerie, entering his 40s next year, has no intention of easing up yet. He is looking forward to a two-week holiday in Barbados over Christmas and New Year , when he will leave his clubs at home and will then embark on a fresh golf year with a new set after switching from Callaway to Hogan. It will be business as usual with a schedule of 16 to 18 tournaments and he claimed: "I have never looked forward to a season starting as much as I am 2003.

"I'm 40 in June and it comes up awfully quickly but I hope I don't have to prove anything. At the same time I want to maintain my place in the top 10 in the world. That's my goal for the end of the year. That means I must improve because the standard around me is improving all the time," he said.

The unwanted title of being the best player never to have won a major still hangs over Montgomerie but he is a lot more relaxed about it nowadays and insists it no longer torments him. "If it happens, it happens but I will never go out and battle that again," he pledged.

He is, however, hoping for more big wins than last year. "My world championship events and majors were very poor and that's why I didn't win the order of merit which I should have done."

Montgomerie admits his best chance could come at the US Masters in Augusta. He wants to play in the 2004 Ryder Cup team but would then be prepared to forgo his place in order to lead the team while still an active player on the world circuit.

"It depends how I feel, how the Tour committee sees it and how it all pans out but I would like that and I have mentioned that to the powers, they have that on the record. It depends what is happening with Langer, Faldo and Woosnam but I feel it's important to captain the team when you are playing on the Tour as a player so you can relate to the players in the team as Sam did to the rookies and the experienced players alike.

"I think I would be a better member of the team - and that is now 13 including the captain because Sam for the first time made it a 13-man team, not a 12-man team - as captain than as the number 10 or 11 player. I will have played under four or five captains by then and hope I will have learned from them all. Sam is the best and if I did half as good a job as him I would be very happy," added Montgomerie.