However, boosted by the backing of this year’s skipper, Sam Torrance, Woosnam now looks set to throw his hat into the ring for America in two years’ time.

"I would like the chance,” he said. “After tasting the delights of being vice-captain at The Belfry I now want to be captain and will make my application known.”

Torrance had voiced his concerns that 2010 would be too late for Woosnam to take over the top spot for the same reasons he has declined the possibility of retaining the post.

"I honestly believe I wouldn’t be the right man for the job and that’s the most important factor,” said Torrance, who himself went from vice-captain under Mark James in 1999 to victorious skipper in 2002.

"I’d have been two years on the senior tour, I would have some rapport with some of the team but not the whole lot of them, not watching them week in, week out. I couldn’t create the same atmosphere. It’s someone that has to be still playing on the tour.

"(Bernhard) Langer and Woosie are both playing well enough to make the next team, they have to decide. Woosie definitely deserves the captaincy and so does Langer.

"But I wouldn’t like to see Woosie wait until Wales. He’d be 52 then, he’d be in the same situation as I would be in in the next one, and I think he should be the next captain.

"He was a fantastic vice-captain, he was great with the players, but he is tenacious and he will want to play again so it will be a tough decision for him.

"He told me on the Sunday night he wanted to wait until Wales and I didn’t think it was right. I can’t see him being on the main tour then and he would lose the rapport with the players.

"It’s all very well thinking ‘Wales would be great for me,’ but I think he would be the best man next time in America. He would be a great captain. I would hate to see him not take it and lose his chance when Wales came around. It wouldn’t be right.”