Golf fans throw their weight behind
Sandy for Ryder Cup captain campaign

An internet petition to have Sandy Lyle installed as Europe’s next Ryder Cup captain has been delivered to the European Tour after collecting over 2,000 signatures.
Launched by golf magazine ‘bunkered’, the biggest-selling golf title in Scotland, the ‘Select Our Sandy’ campaign attracted widespread support from Ryder Cup fans from all across the UK.
A total of 2,081 people signed the on-line petition lobbying for Lyle’s selection as the European captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup match at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.
Martin Dempster, Editor of "bunkered," personally delivered the petition to Ryder Cup spokesman Mitchell Platts as the European Tour’s Tournament Players' Committee prepare to meet next month to select a successor to previous captain Nick Faldo.
The petition was launched in the wake of Faldo’s European team losing 16½-11½ to the USA in September’s most recent staging of the biennial competition, the first loss for the Continent since 1999.
As the only one of Europe’s ‘Big Five’ of the 1980s not to have been given the captaincy so far – Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros have all had a shot at the reins – Lyle is one of the front-runners for the 2010 job.
And the team at "bunkered" believe that he is more than deserving of the opportunity.
“No disrespect to any of the other names in the frame but this is probably Sandy’s last chance to be Europe’s Ryder Cup captain, and it would be a real kick-in-the-teeth to a true ambassador for European golf if he were to be denied this opportunity,” explained Dempster.
“The fact that we have received over 2,000 signatures for our petition in little over two months proves that there is enormous clamour amongst golf fans to see Sandy as captain in Wales.
“It is my hope that the European Tour take good notice of our petition when they come to making their decision and, in the meantime, I will have my fingers crossed that they make the right one by choosing Sandy.”