Garcia fears language barrier may scupper Jimenez chances

Darren Clarke’s quest to become the 2016 European Ryder Cup captain has been given a surprise lift with Spain’s Sergio Garcia believing compatriot Miguel Angel Jimenez’s lack of English will rule him out of the 2016 European team captaincy selection. If so, it leaves the door wide open for Clarke to step through and replace Paul McGinley at Hazeltine. 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. “Darren and Miguel are both good candidates but I amjust concerned for Miguel, and worried that his English is not good enough to deal with all the pressure that goes with being a European captain,” said Garcia. “I know Miguel’s been a Sergio Garcia good Ryder Cup player and he’s also been a great Ryder Cup vicecaptain but 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 a new captain has to deal with. 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 and the sponsors and then when competition gets underway there’s so many speeches he will have to handle. The problem is that English is not his first language and you can try to say something and it comes out so different compared if speaking in Spanish.” A decision on the 2016 European captain is expected in the new year.

The vote for the 2016 European captaincy now seems between Clarke and Jimenez, the Tour’s oldest champion. However Garcia, a veteran of seven Ryder Cups along with being a