Hundreds of golf clubs throughout the UK are fighting for survival during the economic downturn as cash-strapped players cut their spending.

Growing numbers of clubs face being driven out of business as the credit crunch forces tens of thousands of golfers to ditch expensive membership fees to reduce their leisure outlay.

About half the country’s 2,500 clubs have lost members in the last year, figures show.

Many struggling clubs are reducing membership fees and offering cut-price joining deals to stem an exodus of players amid the recession.

Clubs, which for decades have turned away membership applicants, now have vacancies for new players.

Waiting lists have also virtually disappeared.

Dozens of club managers and greenkeepers have been made redundant as a result.

Industry analysts say that as hundreds of thousands of members are forced to tighten their belts on their leisure activities, crucial food and drink takings in the clubhouse have also been affected.

But growing unemployment has also fuelled the slump in spending by golfing enthusiasts.

A shortage of corporate golf days has also hit the industry hard as companies cut back on their entertaining of clients.

More than 800 new courses were created in the 1980s and 90s, when golf’s popularity hit new heights thanks to British stars Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam.

Experts say there are too many clubs chasing too few players.

The English Golf Union, the sport’s governing body, said that 19 clubs had gone into administration since the start of the year.

It warned that many others faced closure as their takings are hit the recession.

A leading corporate rescue specialist company has reported that in the first three months of the year almost 130 golf clubs admitted they have faced “significant problems”.

A further four face ‘critical problems’ while another five have been insolvent.

In addition clubs have been forced to make their own redundancies and cut the numbers of greenkeepers and staff working in club houses and pro shops.

A spokeswoman for the English Golf Union said: “It’s going to be a challenging year for all clubs and membership has clearly fallen, although we don’t know by how much.

“We are putting initiatives in place to help clubs get through this difficult situation.

“But what we are finding is golfers who stop being members are still playing - often at pay-and-play courses - and becoming nomadic golfers.”

But Kevin Buckett of insolvency specialist MCR, believes that more clubs will go under this year as unemployment rises.

He warned: “I don’t think the knock-on effect has happened yet.

“Membership is normally renewed in March or April and I think the full effect will be seen in two or three months’ time when membership is not taken up and clubs start to have cashflow problems.”

John Parkinson of the Golf Club Managers Association said: “Clubs are not getting the same number of visitors and income is on the slide.

“The only way to increase that is by higher subscriptions. But that is a Catch-22 situation.

“Put up subscriptions and you will lose more members.”

The British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association said it was acting for an increasing number of managers and greenkeepers who have been made redundant.

Two-time major winner Mark O’Meara believes Dubai Desert Classic first-round leader Rory McIlroy is ahead of where world No 1 Tiger Woods was at the same age.

The American played alongside McIlroy on Thursday at Emirates Golf Club as the Northern Irish 19-year-old claimed the lead with an eight-under-par 64.

The score also came a day after new Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie named him as a potential candidate for Celtic Manor next year.

McIlroy has yet to win a senior title after play-off defeats at the 2008 European Masters and this year’s Hong Kong Open, but O’Meara is certain that breakthrough will soon come.

“Ball-striking wise at 19, he’s probably better than what Tiger was at 19. His technique I think is better. Certainly Tiger has developed his game and swing over the years and made modifications to be able to hit the ball pin-high, but Rory is already doing that and he’s 19, so he’s already a step ahead,” said O’Meara, 52, after his opening-round 77.

McIlroy played his first professional event as a 16-year-old in 2005, while Woods waited until he was 21 before leaving the amateur ranks.

O’Meara added: “He’s going to win quite a few tournaments, not only on the European Tour, but also in America too and there’s no reason why he can’t win a major championship. He’s got it.”

A nine-year-old McIlroy watched O’Meara beat Woods to win the World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth in 1998.

McIlroy signed for nine birdies against just a solitary bogey having driven into a bush on the 13th.

He ensured a one-shot lead over European No 1Robert Karlsson, who carded a bogey-free 65, with a 15-foot birdie putt at the last after striking into the heart of the green.

McIlroy said: “My main priority is to try and get in there in contention on the back nine on a Sunday.”

British Masters champion Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano carded a six-under 66 to sit third alongside South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel, who was one of 60 players unable to complete their rounds as bad light ended play early.

Frenchman Gregory Havret and Sweden’s Alexander Noren sit three back, with Abu Dhabi winner Paul Casey bouncing back from missing the cut last week in Qatar with a bogey-free 68 to join in-form South African Louis Oosthuizen, who has finished second at his last two events, Hartlepool’s Graeme Storm and Justin Rose at four under par.

Hennie Otto made it three South Africans inside the top 10 as he joined the quartet at four under with four holes to play of his first round.

Golfers who reflect on their strokes are likely to play badly, scientists have discovered.

The performance of even the most skilled amateur is said to be undermined by talking about, or mulling over, their last putting stroke between holes.

The good news for weekend hackers is that the problem is most obvious in players with low handicaps.

Professionals are also less likely to be affected because they are so skilled, even though some careers have been ruined by the putting “yips” - the inability to execute a smooth stroke.

Prof Michael Anderson at St Andrews University and Kristin Flegal at the University of Michigan set out to test the conventional wisdom that “overthinking” during performance can have negative results.

The psychologists concluded that thinking too much about what you have just done can undo your talent and disrupt future performance.

They asked 80 skilled and novice golfers to practice a putting stroke until they got it right three times in a row, and then spend five minutes describing what they did.

When they tried the shot again, their ability was impaired and they took twice as many attempts to sink a putt. The golfers who spent five minutes doing something unrelated to golf did much better.

Prof Anderson, a cognitive neuroscientist who specialises in memory and attention, said: “This effect was especially dramatic in skilled golfers who were reduced to the level of performance of novices after just five minutes of describing what they did.

“Novices, by contrast, were largely unaffected, and perhaps even helped a little, by verbally describing their movements.

“It’s a fairly common wisdom in sport that ‘thinking too much’ hurts performance. However what we found surprising is that simply describing one’s putting skill after it has been executed, can be incredibly disruptive to future putting performance.

“In skilled performers particularly, we found that describing their skill simply impaired its retention.”

Researchers believe the loss of performance is due to an effect called verbal overshadowing, which makes the brain focus more on language centres than on brain systems that support the skills in question.

Prof Anderson added: “Our study suggests, in a nutshell, whatever you do, don’t think too hard about your technique in between holes.

“We have found that simply talking about one’s recent motor action may sow the seeds of poor execution. This observation may have repercussions for athletes who depend on effective mental techniques to prepare for events.

“Moreover, those who teach golf, or any motor skill, might be undoing their own talent in the process.”

Colin Montgomerie marched proudly into the media centre at Emirates Golf Club on Wednesday night to be introduced as Europe’s next Ryder Cup captain.

The expected double act involving Jose Maria Olazabal, who was predicted to be named as his successor for the 2012 match against the United States, failed to materialise, however.

Olazabal will be wondering whether he has missed out on one of the greatest honours available to international golfers. The Spaniard was the favourite for the job of trying to win back the trophy at Celtic Manor next year and would have been appointed in Abu Dhabi a fortnight ago had he reacted favourably to overtures by members of the European Tour’s players’ committee.

When Olazabal, who is concerned by health and fitness problems, failed to confirm his availability, Thomas Bjorn and his committee sought alternatives. As Bjorn reported last night, the name of Montgomerie was the unanimous selection after Sweden’s Henrik Stenson made the initial nomination.

Bjorn, in expressing his delight that “the right man” has got the job, said no assurances had been given about 2012, although he declared that Olazabal had all the credentials to make a future captain.

Indeed, Montgomerie was so impressed by reports of how influential Olazabal had been in Valhalla last September that he has already offered the Spaniard an assistant’s role next year. Olazabal has accepted.

Montgomerie said: “It just seems that the time is right for me to take the helm. The players wanted somebody who is still close to the tour. Once it became apparent that it was me they wanted, I was delighted to accept.”

Montgomerie’s acceptance effectively ends the hopes of his fellow Scot Sandy Lyle of captaining Europe. Lyle will probably be considered too old and detached from the players by 2012.

Montgomerie, an inspirational driving force as a player in eight Ryder Cups – he is unbeaten in singles – added: “I’m not just honoured and proud, I also feel a great sense of responsibility.

“Having lost the last Ryder Cup match at Valhalla, having held it for so long, it is important that we do everything we can to get it back. I can promise you that I will be doing everything I can.”

Montgomerie emphasised that he would be a non-playing captain at Celtic Manor and that any qualifying points he accrued on the European Tour next year would be annulled.

He also said he would abide by any decision taken by the Ryder Cup committee regarding how many captain’s wild card selections he would be allocated. By William Johnson
in Dubai

Jeev Milkha Singh has the slow, sleepy swing of a man used to waiting in the queue for an Indian Post Office.

His three under par 69 in the vicious afternoon wind was the round of the day and he spoke afterwards of how a vote to include golf in the Olympics would create a surge of Indian golfers good enough to challenge the Americans.

The fact that Singh is sharing the lead of the European Open with Frenchman Michael Lorenzo-Vera matters not a jot compared to the sporting revolution ready to take place in India. Singh said: “If golf becomes an Olympic sport in October the Indian government will allocate land in each and every city for a public driving range so that a normal person can take part.

“That is the only way the game will get famous and get close to cricket. Golf being recognised as on Olympic sport will be the best thing that could happen. Our population is over a billion and there is going to be a lot of talent out there.”

Singh is not a man to indulge in hyperbole. He is the son of a man whose parents were slaughtered in the partition of 1947. The orphaned Milkha Singh became the son of the army and became known as the flying Sikh due to his brilliance at athletics in which he won a Commonwealth gold and was briefly world record holder at 400m.

His son Jeev says: “When we walk at train stations or airports the guys will come and get an autograph from my dad. He will say: ‘This is Jeev, my son, do you know him, he plays golf’.” Growing up Jeev only ever heard three things from his dad, “discipline, honesty and hard work”. These were the basis of army life and army life was the basis of Indian golf.

Royal Calcutta Golf Club, founded in 1829 and the product of Empire, was the first club to exist outside the British Isles. The early Indian golfers tended to be the sons of wealthy men. HS Malik went to Oxford just after the Great War, discovered the game of golf and was down to scratch within a year. ‘Billoo’ Sethi, seething at being omitted from the Indian cricket team because of internal politics, took up golf and went on to beat the great Peter Thomson by seven shots at the 1965 Indian Open while still an amateur.

Since then the boundaries have been slowly coming down. In 1996 India defeated Scotland at the Dunhill Cup, in 2004 Jyoti Randhawa became the first Indian to make the cut at the Open and in 2007 Jeev became the first Indian to play in the Masters.

On Friday afternoon Randhawa, who lies three shots behind Singh, was the only man out on the range as he hit 50 consecutive little pitches in an effort to find his rhythm. He also puts his work ethic down to his father who, like Jeev’s, was an army man.

Pausing from his efforts Randhawa said: “I owe to the army what I am today. It is a disciplined life. You get up early. You sleep early. I was like the corporal and I had to do things right. Every time I came back achieving something he raised the bar. I had to live up to expectations and the expectations were very high.”

There are millions of Indian children who did not get the chance that Singh and Randhawa’s army fathers were able to give them. In October the Olympic Committee can rise above politics and make a decision that really will make a difference.

Poulter, second to Ryder Cup team-mate Henrik Stenson in the Players Championship earlier this month, carded an opening 66, four under par, at Colonial.

Starting from the 10th, Poulter birdied his opening hole and, after missing out on a birdie at the par-five 11th, made amends with another on the 12th.

The 33 year-old picked up another shot on the 16th to reach the turn in 32, and added a fourth on the third.

His only setback came with a double-bogey six on the fifth, but he hit back with birdies at the sixth and eighth.

That left Poulter three shots off the clubhouse lead shared by Americans Woody Austin and Steve Stricker as well as South African Tim Clark.

The trio held a one-shot lead from US Ryder Cup star Kenny Perry and Vijay Singh.

England’s Paul Casey also recorded a 66 while compatriots Greg Owen and Luke Donald hit opening 68s, with Justin Rose a shot behind on one under par.

At the Ballantine’s Championship in South Korea The Daily Telegraph talked exclusively to five of the world’s best golfers, discussing everything from the return of Tiger Woods to drug testing in golf.

Since Tiger Woods has returned from injury, has he left behind his aura of invincibility?

Graeme McDowell: Maybe he doesn’t seem invincible any more, but what he did at Bay Hill was pretty impressive. I watched the end of the tournament thinking, “Surely he can’t do this.” What he did coming down the stretch there was unbelievable. No one is invincible; but he just knows how to win; he has not lost that for sure. Tiger is pretty incredible.

Paul McGinley: For the first time in Tiger’s career he has had a 12-month spell when he wasn’t competitive. There’s a sharpness you get playing competitive golf, even if you are not winning. It is one thing to practice and it is another to compete, and I think it will take a while for him to get the wheels turning again. Yes, he won Bay Hill, but he did that due to his short game and because the course suited him and he has a lot of good memories there.

Ernie Els: I played with Tiger in the final round at Doral this year, and you could see the shape of his shots has changed a little bit - he now has this big draw.

McDowell: He is hooking the ball quite a lot.

Els: Tiger’s short game is unbelievable. He chipped in once when I played with him and he made a bunch of putts, although afterwards I heard him say that he had not made enough putts! He shot 68 – it was the easiest 68 you have ever seen in your life. So it’s all there, and after the injury I think what he did at Augusta was quite unbelievable. I remember when I came back from injury in 2006 and I finished 27th, but Tiger almost had a chance to win the Masters this year. He is not too far away, but he is still thinking about the knee a little bit, and he will keep thinking about the knee for another five or six months. Even so, I expect him to be competitive in the next couple of majors.

Fred Couples: If Tiger was sitting here right now he would tell you he was playing pretty mediocre, but when Tiger is playing mediocre he can still hit the ball around and play, and as Ernie says, there’s always his short game.

Woods has 14 majors in the bank. Is it simply a matter of time before he beats Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18?

Couples: I do think Tiger will break Jack’s record. It will be very interesting to see what happens over the next couple of years. If he doesn’t win one of the next eight majors – although I don’t know how he won’t – it will get interesting because there comes a time when everyone’s success rate slows down. He wants to do it and therefore I think he will do it. Tiger pretty much achieves what he sets out to do. I don’t know the exact figure, but I saw that Tiger has 66 wins from around 248 tournaments. That’s ridiculous.

McDowell: Something like a 25 per cent success rate. Not exactly normal is it.

The European contingent largely under-performed at the Masters this year. Was it just a blip or is it a tournament better suited to North and South American golfers?

Els: The reasons are Tiger and Phil.

McDowell: Yes, they probably have a little bit to do with it.

Els: They both have the perfect game for Augusta. Tiger is Tiger and he is going to contend at any major, but Augusta could have been tailor-made for him. Phil has virtually taken the mantle from Tiger - I don’t think he has finished outside the top-10 in the Masters much over the past 10 years. It is not an American issue, it is just that those two golfers have won five out of the last 10 Masters between them.

The US Open returns to Bethpage State Park in June. What impression did it leave with you as a major venue when Bethpage made its US Open debut in 2002?

Els: In 2002 it was as good as it gets. It is a big golf course, it gets big crowds and it is perfectly situated there on Long Island. The New Yorkers are a great sporting crowd – even if they sometimes get a little carried away. I can’t think of a better US Open venue.

McGinley: The crowds make it. I love the New York attitude, and it’s the same at the Ryder Cup too. I would like to see a bit more of that at tournaments.

Els: It’s a public course too, so if they don’t like your shot they’ll say, “get that bull-shit out of here, man”. They love it.

McGinley: The course played really long in 2002.

Els: The USGA set up the 10th so it was 280 yards to the fairway, so some guys couldn’t reach the fairway, me included. It’s a beast.

McGinley: And consider that for some players that 10th was their first hole.

McDowell: Your first hole and you can’t make the fairway. It’s a pretty long week from there isn’t it?

Henrik Stenson: The 11th at Birkdale was pretty long in the Open last year, into that wind. Anders Hansen snapped his driver on the eighth, and when he got up to the 11th with this howling wind straight into his face, he had about 240 yards to the fairway. He just took out his three wood, laughed and hit it into the thick stuff.

Pick a winner for Bethpage.

McGinley:

You have to put Tiger up there and Phil played well the last time it was at Bethpage. It sets up well for his game, but if you put Tiger and Phil on any golf course they have to be considered.

Stenson: They like having their duals.

Els: I’d put Monty up there – Monty and that New York crowd. It was at Bethpage where people were wearing those ‘Be nice to Monty’ tee shirts.

Do you support the International Golf Federation’s campaign for golf to become an Olympic sport?

McGinley: Go for it. I think we are the only major worldwide sport that is not there. I know all the top players are behind it, and it would help spread the growth of the sport, particularly to developing countries. We played quite an important tournament in China recently but there were not a lot of people watching, so if golf were in the Olympics it would attract more people to golf in general.

Els: I think it is a wonderful idea, and I think it would be good for the Olympics themselves to see guys like Tiger Woods play. Golf’s majors go down in the history books, but the Olympics are once every four years, and if you could make that team just once in your life, I think anyone would want to do that.

Stenson: Golf in the Olympics would be great if all the best players were there.

Els: You have got to go with the best in the world, the professionals. That is what the Olympics spirit is all about.

Couples: It would be great for the spectators too. At a lot of Olympic events they don’t get a lot of people watching during the early rounds, but Olympic golf would be like a major – they would get 100,000 people over four days, which would be pretty exciting.

How hard has the global recession hit the PGA Tours in the US and Europe?

McGinley: The PGA Tour has a lot of banks and financial institutions as sponsors, which is the sector hit hardest by the current economy. We are fortunate on the European Tour in as much as we play in Asia and Australia as well, so our markets are a little more diverse than the PGA Tour’s. But the PGA Tour is very strong and they have a huge amount of TV money to prop them up. I think we are going to ride this recession and come out the other side.

Els: I understand there might be some money taken off the table at the European Open and the Austrian Open, so the recession is being felt a little bit on the European Tour as well. As a sport though, I think golf is pretty well positioned.

Henrik, your association with the Stanford Financial Group is well documented. Is there any news there?

Stenson: I don’t know too much at this point. I don’t wear the logo anymore and obviously it is an unfortunate situation for a lot of people, me included.

McGinley: Stanford has said it’s all a mistake and that it will all be cleared up. He has said that everybody is going to get their money and that everything is going to be fine. His side of the story is that he has done nothing wrong, that it’s not a Ponzi scheme and it will be OK.

Stenson: I know they have let a lot of people go who were working for the bank in America, and people are worried about their investments, but we will just have to wait and see.

Drug testing on the European and PGA Tours began last year. How is it going?

Els: I got drug-tested about four times in two weeks. I don’t know if they were after me. They must have heard rumours about my weeks off!

McDowell: They don’t have an alcohol test yet so I think we are safe with these glasses of whisky.

Stenson: I have not been tested yet.

McGinley: Neither have I.

Els: Really?

Stenson: The only thing that seems a bit weird is that a lot of guys have been called in and have struggled to produce a urine sample, so they drink a lot of water, but then the test is diluted and won’t work.

McDowell: Yes, the test has to be at a certain pH level.

Stenson: In Phoenix at the Matchplay, Martin Kaymer was still there four hours later. That could obviously be a big hassle for a golfer.

Couples: The big problem is that if guys are being held up on a Sunday, missing flights as a result.

Stenson: I am sure you would be happy to stand there trying to get some pee out, when you have finished with a 78, in a tie for 69th and your flight is leaving.

McGinley: Overall, it is important that we are seen as a clean sport, particularly if golf is going to become an Olympic sport.

Stenson: It’s very important, although I don’t think there are too many things in golf that can enhance your performance. Does Viagra keep you long and straight? I don’t know.

In the arena of equipment technology, is the golf ball flying too far now?

McGinley: I think the horse has bolted. The problem should have been addressed 10 years ago, when the scientists that the USGA and R&A had were not as good as the ones the manufacturers had. The manufacturers basically broke through the gates and went too far with the ball.

Els: I am against stopping technology, but people also need to be careful how they set-up golf courses. Look at Oakland Hills last year [in the US PGA Championship]. Some of those fairways were un-hittable. Look at Shinnecock Hills. A great golf course, but they were scared of the technology and scared of a low score winning, and they screwed up the golf course.

Stenson: Longer is not always better.

Els: Exactly. They need to be careful not to take a great, classic golf course, and just for the sake of stopping someone going low, screwing up the golf course.

McGinley: In fairness, over the last couple of years we have started to see that the USGA, R&A and Augusta are starting to see the picture. Augusta was great this year, Torrey Pines was great last year and Birkdale was great last year, so they are starting to get it now. Mistakes have been made in the past though, no doubt about it.

If you were Tour Commissioner for a day, what would you change?

Couples: Shorts. I’d like to be allowed to wear shorts.

McGinley: I’d like that.

Stenson: Would that include boxers?

McDowell: His game has been red-hot ever since [Stenson stripped down to his underwear to play a shot from the water’s edge in the CA Championship in March].

Stenson: I have been threatened by people that they are going to support me at tournaments by wearing a pair of jocks outside their trousers. I have had these phone calls.

Couples: I think golfers would play better in shorts when it’s 100 degrees and we’re sweating and you look like Hell.

Stenson: Fred, if you want to wear shorts I’d have no problem with that. It’s not as if I’d three-putt just because I saw your white legs.

Couples: You’d actually get pretty excited and I think you’d putt a lot better.

Interviewer: Robin Barwick. Questions and editing: Mark Reason.
This round table took place courtesy of Ballantine’s

Jerry Kelly grabbed his first US Tour victory for seven years in remarkable fashion in New Orleans on Sunday night.

From three strokes clear with a round to go in the Zurich Classic the 42-year-old fell three behind after 10 holes, but then took advantage of a late collapse from Charles Howell.

Birdies at the 11th and short 14th were followed by four closing pars and that was just enough to give Kelly the title and the $1.1 million first prize on 14 under par.

While he shot 71 Howell returned a 68, but the 29-year-old’s day will not be remembered for his six birdies in the first 11 holes, but for his bogeys at the 15th and 17th.

Howell pulled a drive into sand for the first of them, then three-putted two holes later.

Unlucky when a 261-yard fairway wood to the par five last bounded over the green, he failed to get up and down and so had to settle for a share of second place with South African Rory Sabbatini and Korean Charlie Wi.

Sabbatini was kicking himself for what he did late on as well.

Two behind when his drive to the 296-yard 16th skipped past the edge of the lake and went just over the green, his chip for eagle and a share of the lead lipped out, but he then missed his three-foot birdie attempt and bogeyed the next.

Sabbatini gave himself another eagle chance on the last, but had to settle for birdie.

Wi, meanwhile, missed a 13-foot birdie putt at the 18th as his wait for a first win in America went on.

A dejected Howell commented: “I don’t know what to say. I got myself to 15 (under par) and in position to do it, but I didn’t finish it off.

“I would have loved to. I hit a lot of great shots, but I just wish I could have finished better.”

It was Kelly’s 200th US Tour event since his last success - and only last week, troubled by a dislocated rib and ‘flu, he walked off the course on the second day of the Vertizon Heritage after taking a 10 on one hole.

Kelly said: “After the 10th it was not my tournament to lose any more. It was mine to go get - that was the mindset I took.

“Two people yelled ‘miss it’ over a putt and maybe that was the best thing I could have heard. I was not going to give them the satisfaction.

“We are in the sporting world and you are going to hear everything. You had better suck up and do your job.

“I knew where I stood and basically I was playing against myself and my nerves.”

Ian Poulter finished as leading European in a tie for 13th on eight under, but Brian Davis, Greg Owen and Scot Martin Laird were all disappointed to finish just behind him - and not just because they closed with bogey sixes.

Davis had climbed to joint second with four birdies in the first eight holes, but bogeyed three of the next seven, while Laird played the last eight in four over after standing joint sixth and Owen, having also covered the first 11 in three under, dropped back as well. cialis zealand Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy

Two-times Ryder Cup winner Paul Casey believes Colin Montgomerie should lead the new generation of Europeans at Celtic Manor next year.

Casey, the world No 23 who made his third consecutive appearance in the defeat at Valhalla last September, has backed Montgomerie to come out ahead of Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal on Wednesday when Europe’s tournament committee are expected to unveil Nick Faldo’s successor.

With Europe boasting 11 of the world’s top 30, and eight-time Ryder Cup veteran Montgomerie, 45, a regular fixture around the world, Casey believes the Scot is in an ideal position to reclaim the coveted title from the United States.

Olazabal’s recent battles with rheumatism have limited the 42-year-old to only three tournaments in the last eight months and he is expected to take charge in Chicago in 2012 due to Montgomerie’s negative relationship with crowds across the Atlantic.

Ahead of this week’s Dubai Desert Classic, Casey said: “I’m intrigued. My money would be on Monty. Monty and Olazabal are the two horses in the race it seems and I think they both would be fantastic captains and I’m sure they will both be captain at some stage, it just depends on who is first.

“I have huge respect for Monty and I think, from what I have read and when I have spoken to him, he would love to captain a side that he knows all the players.

“We have fantastic players right now. I have now dropped to 23rd in the world, but when I was 21st in the world last week I was only the eighth best European and that shows how impressive European golf is right now.”

Former Ryder Cup captains Bernard Gallacher and Sam Torrance have already thrown their weight behind fellow Scot Montgomerie.

All signs point to the captains for the home challenge in Wales next year, and trip to Medinah in Illinois two years later, being announced on Wednesday, with Sandy Lyle again set to miss out and Ian Woosnam unlikely to be recalled following his successful captaincy at the K Club in 2002.

Five-time Ryder Cup winner Montgomerie only emerged as a front-runner two weeks ago in Abu Dhabi after previously indicating he wanted to return to the team next year to win a ninth cap and wait until Gleneagles in 2014 to take up the captaincy.

Olazabal’s manager, meanwhile, confirmed the three-time winner was available last week after he had also previously indicated he was hopeful of qualifying as a player.

Both Montgomerie and Olazabal are set to tee off on Thursday at Emirates Golf Club in the Dubai Desert Classic.

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Spain’s Alvaro Quiros has won the Qatar Masters after holding his nerve over a tense final round to edge out former champion Henrik Stenson and Louis Oosthuizen by three shots.

The talented 26-year-old Portugal Masters champion signed for a final-round three-under-par 69 to finish at 19 under par.

The victory catapults Quiros into the world’s top 30 to virtually guarantee his debut at the Masters at Augusta in April.

Stenson’s 68 ensured a fifth straight top-seven finish at Doha Golf Club for the 2006 champion, but the Dubai-based Swede’s three-putt bogey at the last allowed overnight leader and Abu Dhabi runner-up Oosthuizen to earn a share of second after a final round of 71.

Ireland’s Damien McGrane carded a bogey-free 67 to earn a hard-fought fourth at 13 under, while Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez’s three birdies earned him a 69 and a share of fifth with Holland’s Maarten Lafeber (72).

Inaugural Qatar champion Andrew Coltart (72) shared seventh with Simon Dyson (66), world number two Sergio Garcia (70), Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat (70) and another Spaniard Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (69) at 11 under.

Stenson, last year’s runner-up to Adam Scott, snatched the lead at 16 under with an eagle at the 10th, but Quiros and Oosthuizen - playing a group behind - responded with birdies of their own to leave all three tied through 11.

The momentum swung Quiros’ way as he birdied the 12th and Oosthuizen dropped a shot to fall two off the pace before the Spaniard extended his lead as he converted from eight feet a hole later.

Stenson put pressure on with birdie of his own at 15 to move within one at 17 under before Quiros wobbled as he dumped his three-wood approach from the rough into the water which resulted in him holing a 15-foot putt just to save bogey and fall back into a tie with the experienced Stenson.

But Quiros found a response of his own with a fourth birdie of the week at the 16th before taking a two-stroke lead down the last with another at the par-three 17th.

Stenson had a chance to cut the lead and put pressure on the Spaniard but after battling out of the desert off the tee needed three putts to finish his round and a smiling Quiros strode onto the final green to claim a third European Tour title and move up to fourth place in the Race to Dubai.

Moments earlier Oosthuizen had birdied the last to record a second successive runner-up finish, which sees him move up to fifth on the season money list - a place ahead of Stenson.