The dust hasn't settled on the 2016 Ryder Cup yet for the Europeans -- or the Americans for that matter -- to know who they'd like to be their future captains, particularly in Paris in 2018.
However, European stalwart and Hazeltine disappointment Lee Westwood knows that he will get a turn at the helm in the not-too-distant future. He's been on 10 European teams in a row, and he's been a Ryder Cup legend. He's part of the cadre of five or six players who are certainly in line to become a captain; it just depends on the order.
Westwood has pegged himself to lead the Euros in a road game, saying previously that he wanted to take on the added challenge. And he's still holding on to the idea that he'll be the 2020 European captain at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
"I certainly wouldn't want to be the captain next time around. That's too soon for me, but I think 2020 is definitely on my radar," Westwood said Wednesday ahead of the British Masters in England. "There are a lot of candidates for it, but I'll be putting my name in the ring for sure. It's something I'd like to do."
Westwood is probably eyeing a chance to tie Nick Faldo's European record of making 11 consecutive teams in 2018. He has a 20-18-6 Ryder Cup record, leaving him 2.5 points behind Faldo's mark for the all-time leading European scorer. But if he can't make the team, either on points or with an appointment as he merited from friend Darren Clarke this time, he'd like to get into the role of vice-captain in Paris.
"I've played in a lot and I'd like to maybe play in it again," he said. "But if I can't play again, I'd like to do the assistant captain's role, see what goes on behind the scenes, although I paid a lot of attention to what Darren (Clarke) and the assistant captains were doing this year."
