Torrance signals Belfry ambition

Like the gunslinger who goes into a showdown only to discover someone has stolen his bullets, the man they call "Jesse" James knows that his time as Europe's Ryder Cup captain is up.

Although there may be a sense of unfinished business heading into the 2001 match at The Belfry in England, Mark James was insistent yesterday that he would not be seeking a second term as captain. "No, absolutely not," remarked James, when asked if he would change his mind about relinquishing the captaincy. "I'm definitely stepping down. It is a once-only job these days and there are a lot of other guys who deserve the honour and privilege of leading the team. There is absolutely no chance of me reconsidering."

Indeed, James said it was his intention to be at The Belfry in two years time, but as a player - even if that required "adding about 20 or 30 yards" onto his game - and not as a captain.

Sam Torrance, one of James's vice-captains at Brookline, has signalled his ambition for the captaincy declaring that he would regard it as the greatest honour of his life if he is asked to take over from Mark James.

Commenting on the role he will play in 2001, Torrance added: "I don't think I'm good enough to make the next team - but I certainly want to be there. "To be captain would be the greatest honour of my life, but until I am offered it I can't comment on it.

"I've been at every Ryder Cup at The Belfry (he sank the winning putt there in 1985), and the crowds there have always been fantastic.

"I've no reason to think they won't be in two years' time."

James and his deputy Sam Torrance agreed, however, that something must be done to cut out barracking from galleries in the rarefied atmosphere of golf's premier team tournament.

"The first thing would be to ban alcohol but the Ryder Cup is a huge corporate event and you can't do a great deal of entertaining without giving people a drop of the hard stuff," said James.

The players' were unanimous in their praise for the manner in which James had handled the pressures of captaincy. Certainly, there was no end to the torture inflicted on one man on Sunday as James watched helplessly as his team fell victims to the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history.

In the post-match environment, James also conducted himself with considerable style - and retained his dead-pan wit when asked if he thought Hal Sutton was man of the match. "Well, I think he had three points. If he'd only got two, we'd have won, so I'm very disappointed in Hal. And I'll tell him that."

James won't be back again as captain, but he was full of praise for his team: "The spirit was remarkable. I think this team was the case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts and I think we came up short because the Americans rode a great streak on the last day. Simple as that."

Europe's captain didn't believe that he had erred in leaving three rookies - Jean Van de Velde, Jarmo Sandelin and one of his "wild card" picks Andrew Coltart - on the sidelines for the first two days and only giving them a match in the singles. All three lost.

But James insisted: "I think the decisions we took were the right decisions. I would do exactly the same again if I was in that situation. If someone had said to me at the start of the week, or said to us as a team, `those three guys don't play for two days, you play those nine four times but you've got a four points lead going into the singles', we would have stayed by the pool for two days and come out."

So, James becomes the second European captain - after Seve Ballesteros who also took a once-only approach to captaining the team at Valderrama two years ago - to decide to step down and pass the reins onto someone else. That decision on a replacement is unlikely to take place until next summer, shortly before the qualifying process starts all over again.

The 34th Ryder Cup match is scheduled to take place at The Belfry (to honour the centenary of the PGA), while the rest of the schedule is: 2003 at Oakland Hills in Michigan; 2005 at The K Club; 2007 at Valhalla Golf Club in Lousiville; 2009 is undecided, while the 2011 match will take place at Medinah Country Club in Chicago.

Although 2009 has yet to be decided, Scotland have made a move to bring the event there. Over the weekend, they formally applied to play host to the Ryder Cup in 10 years time and the front-runners at this stage are Gleneagles and Loch Lomond.