Intro:

Both the 2014 Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley and 2010 captain Colin Montgomery cited Darren Clarke's experience, along with player support, as key reasons for appointing him as European captain for the 2016 tournament in Hazeltine.

Script:

"Well I think the fact that he's obviously been a very successful player and a big player in the Ryder Cup was obviously a huge part. The fact he's done two vice-captaincies as well too. We're very much... a succession plan is important to us I think. I was certainly a product of two vice-captaincies and two Seve Trophy captaincies and they informed me a lot, in terms of what I was going to do as a captain and Darren has been blessed as well too with two vice-captaincies, that's important. So he knows what management is like, he knows what dealing with the players is like. I think the players have made it quite clear that they would like him to be captain, which is also a point as well too and we put all of those things on the table. We also talked extensively obviously about Miguel (Angel Jimenez) and Thomas (Bjorn) as well too and went through their credentials as well, but ultimately we came up with an unanimous decision that Darren was going to be the next Ryder Cup captain."

"It's one thing to announced as captain and nominated, but the next thing is now he'll be thinking about this every minute of every day for the next year and a half is how to try and win this Ryder Cup and how to retain the Ryder Cup. In America tough, no question, it'll be a very strong American team, one that wants it back badly and they'll come up against a European team that wants to keep it. And all go, it's great, the next year and a half we'll be building up for this and we'll look forward to the matches commencing."