Don't insult Paul McGinley by recalling Colin Montgomerie for Ryder Cup at Gleneagles - Derek Lawrenson

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Surely history can't be about to repeat itself in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday evening. Surely the siren call won't go out for Colin Montgomerie to be Ryder Cup captain once more.

Four years ago it was an inspired move. The dithering of first choice Jose Maria Olazabal had created a vacuum and eloquent Swede Henrik Stenson duly filled it by saying to his fellow Tournament Players’ Committee members, who decide on the post: ‘Why not Monty?’

Now it is Darren Clarke in Ollie’s shoes. Like the Spaniard he is plagued by the nagging feeling he could still make one more team as a player.

Outstanding candidate: Paul McGinley has a big supporter in new Nike superstar Rory McIlroy (bottom left), but the committee may still hand Colin Montgomerie (bottom right) a second crack at the Americans

Two months ago, he was being urged by fellow committee members to stand and believed the captaincy was his if he wanted it. But what point is a skipper spending two years feeling: ‘What if?’

The other outstanding candidate, Paul McGinley, is filled with no such doubts. It would be a grievous insult to the Irishman to turn the clock back to Monty. There’s no vacuum this time.

Yet the whispers at the opening tournament in South Africa last week were loud enough for two members of the last team to sound the alarm.

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‘Hope committee don’t feel they have to match up our capt to Tom Watson — shouldn’t influence our decision,’ tweeted Paul Lawrie, while world No 1 and McGinley’s No 1 fan, Rory McIlroy, added: ‘RC captaincy should be a one-time thing...would love to play under McGinley in ’14.’

McGinley’s biggest problem has always been that he doesn’t fit the profile of a home captain. Since  Bernard Gallacher lost to Tom Watson in 1993, they’ve all been crowd pleasers who thrived on home support and the emotion of the occasion: in order, Seve Ballesteros, Sam Torrance, Ian Woosnam and Colin Montgomerie.

The reason why Clarke was odds-on favourite is he sits well in such company. If Clarke is ruling himself out, you can see why those committee members of such persuasion would pine for Monty on home soil at Gleneagles next year.

However, as Lawrie implicitly points out, it would be a ludicrous over-reaction to Watson’s appointment as US captain.

First man on the phone to the European Tour hierarchy after that incredible announcement last month was Sandy Lyle. What a shame Sandy was never so interested when it was his time. Now that time has come and gone.

In McGinley, Europe have a man who is the right age at 46 and has the passion and intelligence  to break the captaincy mould. Spend time in his company and it  is not hard to see why so many  of the Medinah miracle workers have thrown their weight behind him.

Sure, he doesn’t live with Watson in terms of charisma. Who does? But he would make up for it where it really counts — in the team room.

Quote of the week

‘You’d have to think a star has been born here. If you study his game, there are just no flaws’

For once, nobody could blame US television commentator Johnny Miller for going overboard. America’s latest wonder boy Russell Henley (right), making his US Tour debut in Hawaii, finished with five successive birdies in the Sony Open on Sunday to make it played one, won one. Sensational, by any sporting standard.

Welcome to the new world tour

You will be familiar with the cries of anguish regarding some of the weaker events on the European Tour now so many of the best players are based in America.

What you might not know is that similar howls of dismay emanate from the sponsors of equivalent events on the US Tour.

Over the past four years we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the playing schedules of the top golfers to the extent they now all gather in pretty much the same places. Some 20 years on from when Greg Norman suggested a world tour, we’ve practically now got one in all but name.

Leading lights: Tiger Woods (right) and McIlroy should meet plenty of times on tour this year

Take Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, the two biggest draws in the game. They will each play 22 or 23 events this year. Ten years ago, the top American and top European would probably have met in direct competition on no more than seven or eight occasions.

By my reckoning, Abu Dhabi this week will be the first of no fewer than 17 or 18 tournaments where these two will congregate this season.

It is not just McIlroy and Woods either. There will be 15 events this year where at least nine of the world’s top 10 will play.

That is great if you’re on the list, of course. But you can see why there are so many sponsors not just in Europe but America as well who feel on the outside looking in.

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