Will Monty campaign for '14 Euro captaincy?

• By Ryan Lavner
• Dec 13, 2012 10:15 AM ET

With the news Thursday that eight-time major winner Tom Watson has been named the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for 2014, it was natural to wonder whether Europe would counter with a big splash of its own.

A boldfaced name that already has surfaced is Colin Montgomerie, the victorious 2010 captain. The Scot would seem a logical choice to captain the team at Gleneagles, but Monty thinks the job now is more of a “one-hit deal.”

“It’s the greatest honor bestowed on any European golfer to captain one’s Ryder Cup team,” he said, via an unbylined report on Sky Sports. “I had that honor and managed to just about succeed but, at the same time, I think it is a one-hit deal now and I think the days of Tony Jacklin having done it four times and Bernard Gallacher three are in the past. There are some great candidates within the European Tour and I wish them well.”

Chief among them are 2011 British Open winner Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley. Peter Lawrie, a member of the 15-man Tournament Players Committee that selects Europe’s Ryder Cup captain, wondered in a report Tuesday why it’s only a “two-horse race.”

“What is happening in America (with Watson) has really come out of the blue and maybe we’d need a name, a really big personality, to go up against a name,” Lawrie said, via Karl MacGinty of the Irish Independent.