APART from the fact they all led Europe to victory over the USA in the Ryder Cup, one of the captaincy traits shared by Seve Ballesteros, Sam Torrance, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam was that at the time they were all active golfers on one of the main Tours.
The value of recruiting leaders who are senior contemporaries of the men they've been asked to captain was more or less a job requirement in Europe between 1995 and 2006.
At 51, Nick Faldo, who was in charge of the losing European side at Valhalla
, was the first captain since Bernard Gallacher at Oak Hill not still playing regularly on Tour.
At Valderrama in 1997, Ballesteros was 40 and played 19 events that season; in 1999, Mark James was 45 and teed up in 23 events; in 2002, Torrance was 49 and played 17 times; in 2004, Langer was 47 and played 15 events on the US PGA Tour; and in 2006, Woosnam was 48 and played 16 events.
This point is worth considering in some detail after Faldo, a television commentator, declared his readiness to join Woosnam and Sandy Lyle, who ply their trade on the senior circuit in Europe and the USA, among those who have thrown their hats in the ring to captain Europe at Celtic Manor in 2010.
Last night, speaking on the BBC TV programme Inside Sport, Faldo said he would accept a second term. "I would do it again because the buzz of being in the team room with everybody was really special," he told Gabby Logan. "I absolutely loved every minute of it. It was a great honour for me."
Widely criticised for the lack of preparation he appeared to put into his public speaking, the clumsy manner in which his foursomes pairings were leaked and the erratic make-up of both his pairings and the singles order, Faldo explained how he shut himself off from media comments.
"We were all in it together, very much so," he said. " I kind of sensed on Sunday night where it (the press reaction] was going. I was aware of it, but I haven't read the press for years and years now. I don't get caught up in it all."
Having lost by five points to Paul Azinger's team in Kentucky, it's hard to imagine there being much of a clamour on the influential Tournament Committee to nominate Faldo again. That said, in the immediate aftermath of Valhalla, Gallacher, for one, felt it would be fair to give Faldo a shot at redemption.
While the winner of six majors spoke of his willingness to accept a second term, that's not the same thing, of course, as expecting to receive an offer. In the immediate aftermath of the defeat in Louisville, Faldo said: "I believe it was a one-stop shot, as they say."
After a spell between 1983 and 1995 when Tony Jacklin and Gallacher captained Europe on seven occasions between them, it has become accepted practice, with so many deserving cases, that the honour is for just one term.
Both Torrance and Langer were hailed as two of Europe's best ever captains. Nevertheless, neither the Scot nor the German was asked to do the job again.
Because the 2010 match is in Wales, there's a school of thought Woosnam should be invited back. Even though he, too, previously remarked the post was a one-off, the former Masters champion has since admitted: "I did say it would be once and only once, but a lot can happen in four years and I'm starting to think it may be right for me again, especially as it's here in Wales."
There's another line of argument, supported by Colin Montgomerie, that it would be unfair if Lyle, the only member of the Famous Five major winners who hasn't captained Europe, didn't receive the honour. "When you think about it, Sandy was probably the most talented of any of them," observed Monty.
The clamour to acknowledge Lyle has deep support in Scotland where the magazine Bunkered has attracted widespread backing for a petition to support the former Open and Masters champion.
For many on the Tournament Committee, led by Thomas Bjorn, there's a quandary attached to the appointment in 2009 of Europe's next captain which demands an element of soul searching: namely, striking a balance between honouring the appropriate individual and selecting the person best equipped to beat the USA.
