The choice of Corey Pavin to be the next captain of the US Ryder Cup team throws the spotlight on to Europe and who will be named captain of the home team at the Celtic Manor Resort in 33 months.

Will it be Sandy Lyle, for whom Bunkered, the Scottish golf magazine, has gathered several thousand indications of support? Much as I admire the idea of a man as nice as Lyle being captain, I prefer Ian Woosnam. I like the idea of a 5ft 4 1/2 Welshman who fought his way to become the best player in the world and has successfully captained one team being recalled to duty and facing a 5ft 8 in American who fought his way to become the 1995 US Open champion and is nicknamed the Bulldog. What would be the sub text of this contest? How about "Two titches on the tee."

Let's see, now. Woosnam v Pavin. A man who was very long off the tee against a man who was very short. A man whose stock-in-trade was a 1 iron under the wind and was always said to be tenacious against a man who wielded his putter like a wand and was known to have remarkable fighting qualities.

There is something of the last man standing about Pavin. Mark O'Meara, who is 51 and has won twice as many major championships as Pavin as well as playing on five Ryder Cup teams and two Presidents Cup teams, has been excluded presumably because of his position about the way the PGA of America distribute the money the players receive for competing in the biennial event.

Davis Love III, 44, would have been given consideration except that he feels he can still play his way into the side and having won the last event of the year in the US may indeed be justified in thinking that. Fred Couples, who was 50 last October, was a contender but has his mind on leading the US in the 2009 Presidents Cup.

And then there was Paul Azinger. A personal word here. I tried several times to get an interview with the successful American captain in the weeks following his triumph and failed. "He's having a bit of a rest. He deserves it" was how I was rebuffed the first time. Then I was told "he's not doing interviews". I tried a third time and failed that time too.

The players wanted Azinger. "Zinger in '10" was their shout after victory. Azinger himself dithered before ruling himself out.

Which brings us back to Pavin. Pavin is going to find his wearing a US army fatigue cap at Kiawah Island in 1991 will be revisited time and again as will, to a lesser degree, his chip-in during the 1995 Ryder Cup and the four wood stroke he hit to win the US Open. In other words, what people remember most about Pavin is not his play but his misguided attempt at a golf tournament to offer support to the US forces in the Middle East. Let us hope that his leadership in Wales does not contain any such clunking ideas.

Foursomes anyone?

Do you play foursomes? Do you know what foursomes golf is? Apologies if you are offended but I suspect there are some of you who do not know what it is and even more of you who know but don't play the alternate shot format. If you don't play it, you should.

The other day I played a friendly foursomes match for my club and to my way of thinking it was the perfect format for such a cold winter's day. We teed off from the 1st at 12.50pm and walked off the 18th green at 3.20pm. Two and a half hours for a round of golf. How about that? That is what happens when you play foursomes the way it should be played, with one player down the fairway awaiting the drive and so on. Try it.

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