Woosnam makes claim for Ryder captaincy

While Nick Faldo challenged for the lead on the first day of the Lancôme Trophy, Ian Woosnam became the first to put in a bid to lead the Ryder Cup team in 2004 at Oakland Hills.

Woosnam, vice-captain at The Belfry a fortnight ago, is Sam Torrance's anointed successor and said he wanted to be captain "sooner rather than later". Faldo, on the other hand, declared: "I'll wait." Perhaps there is finally some order forming to the queue of those waiting to succeed Torrance. Bernhard Langer has yet to declare his hand but has hinted he may still want to play in two years time. Faldo definitely wants to try for another appearance and would prefer to get the job when his playing days are firmly behind him.

Woosnam had been thought of as captain for Celtic Manor in 2010 but now does not want to wait that long. "It will be too late," he said. "I will be on the Seniors tour by then and I think you need to be out playing with the guys regularly. You need to know how they play, what sort of people they are, how they will blend into a team. I think having been a vice-captain is important. I learnt a lot working with Sam at The Belfry and you can see there are more things going on behind the scenes than you realise as a player."

Woosnam would ideally like to delay a decision so that if either himself or Langer looked like qualifying for the team, the other could take over as captain. A more likely scenario might be for Woosnam to be handed the captaincy but with Langer in his backroom team. If Woosnam wanted to withdraw in order to play there would then be a ready replacement, while if Langer did not make it, he would gain valuable experience for a possible captaincy in 2006 in Ireland. That would leave Faldo looking at the 2008 match at the age of 51. But as he has repeatedly stated he will not be playing on the Seniors tour, that may be less of a problem. He also revealed he wanted to take on a coaching role. "If I'm going to be captain," Faldo said, "I want to commit to it 100 per cent. I want it to be a two-year job.

"I would prefer to do it with the youngsters coming through so I can come up with a plan. I want to try and help them, as I have been working with Nick Dougherty, to improve their games but long term to prepare for the Ryder Cup." Faldo cancelled the planned launch of the Nick Faldo Golf Company on Monday because he still wants to concentrate on the playing side for the moment. He got an instant reward when he birdied the first four holes here and six of the first eight. A six-under 65 left him one behind the leader, Alex Cejka.

"Everything felt good today," he said. "I played well, putted well and felt comfortable with being on the leaderboard. We've slowed up on the business side and the business people are going to look after that and I'm going off golfing." Torrance, in his first round since the Ryder Cup triumph, had a 72 playing alongside Faldo.