Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Clarke appointment a no-brainer

Will Darren Clarke be raising the Ryder Cup as captain?
Will Darren Clarke be raising the Ryder Cup as captain?

Everybody seems to be pretty happy that Darren Clarke is the next European Ryder Cup captain.

And I’m not going to argue.

I think it was Monty who said Clarke ticks all the boxes, and that sums it up pretty well.

He’s got the playing record, the respect of his team, the experience as vice-captain and he’s well-liked in the States.

I can’t actually remember a time when Europe made a controversial appointment. The succession of captains from one to another just seems to have been totally natural.

And their record in that time would suggest that going with the obvious candidate has worked.

Yes, there have been one or two who have missed out, like Sandy Lyle, but I guess that’s a result of too many strong options at the one time.

Even the only recent loser Nick Faldo had to be given the job on the back of his outstanding playing stats in the Ryder Cup.

On the other side of the coin, America always seem to be looking for a magic ingredient that doesn’t exist. And if often turns out to be a gamble.

Gleneagles was the perfect example.

Tom Watson was a huge risk. It could have paid off, but it turned out to be a disaster.

The European equivalent would have been going back to Tony Jacklin and I can’t think of anyone who has suggested that.

And if it’s true that Davis Love III is going up against Clarke, that’s another gamble, albeit not as big as the Watson one.

His appointment means that his last gig in Medinah will be talked about over and over and over again in the next year-and-a-half and in Ryder Cup week itself.

And that can’t be a positive thing.

After the choices of captain, Europe are one up after one.

* I couldn’t believe the Twitter row that Mo Farah got himself involved in.

When another GB runner questioned the quality of the field assembled for a race Farah is taking part in he went off on one quicker than he would in the last lap of a 5,000 metres.

It was the sort of to-and-fro that shouldn’t have been conducted in front of the watching world.

Anyone can put out one Tweet and regret it, but this ding-dong went on for quite a while.

I don’t know the history behind it, but the British public don’t like when stars appear to get too big for their boots, so I’ll bet Farah’s advisers have had a word in his ear!

* I can’t let the column finish without a mention for my dad and my coach.

They were in the team that won the Scottish Seniors last weekend, which means they’ll now go to the Senior Worlds in Sochi.

Hopefully we can follow in their footsteps this weekend!