SWINDON golfer David Howell has said that you didn’t need to be a genius when it came to announcing Darren Clarke as the next Ryder Cup captain.

The Broome Manor pro was part of the selection committee who made the decision to name the popular Northen Ireland golfer as the man to lead Europe in the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, United States.

It used to be the tournament committee that picked the Ryder Cup captain but two years ago, after picking Paul McGinley, the process was changed to a sub-committee of the last three captains, the chief executive of the tour and a representative from the players committee, who was Howell.

The committee picked Clarke ahead of Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez and Thomas Bjorn of Denmark and Howell said that they thought the timing was right for 46-year-old.

“We had a good discussion and we discussed all three candidates very strongly. We found that each person that we had in front of us was very strong,” said Howell.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that Darren had a very strong case. He has a great record in the Ryder Cup.

“He has got many of the qualities and the history behind him that would put him right in line to be a potential Ryder Cup captain.

“This time round it seemed like a good time for him personally, the way is career is shaping up he felt it would be a good time for him to be considered and all things being equal a lot of things just sat in his favour.

“The other two candidates are very strong contenders to be Ryder Cup captains at some point as well.

“Darren has good camaraderie and respect and a good relationship with many of the players that are likely to make the team.

“They all respect what he has done and will certainly sit down and listen to what he has to say.

“On mass we decided that when you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, an away match in America and so forth we just felt that Darren had the stronger case to do the best job this time around.”

Howell now believes with Clarke, who has won the tournament four times as a player and was a vice-captain for the wins in 2010 and 2012, can make his own bit of history by winning the tournament.

“We’re on such a great run, in terms of the last two decades in Ryder Cup, the momentum is on our side and it is just a case of keeping the ball rolling,” he added.

“It is always a tough task to win in America. We did it last time around away from home but by the skin of our teeth and it is always really hard to win and every time the Americans lose they double their efforts to make sure they win the next time.

“Two years is a long time in sport and golf, but we will have a very strong team again there is no doubt about that.

“That bodes well for Darren to retain the trophy once again.

“The captains only get one chance at it now. The days of doing it two or three years in a row are long gone and every captain is determined to write their own page in the history books on a positive note and Darren has a strong chance of doing that.”