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Westwood: I want Faldo's Ryder Cup record

Two points at Gleneagles put Lee Westwood in touching distance of Sir Nick Faldo's Ryder Cup record © Getty Images

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Lee Westwood has ruled himself out of captaining the European Ryder Cup team until he has overtaken Sir Nick Faldo as the competition's all-time leading point scorer.

Westwood began last week's Ryder Cup on 21 points, four behind Faldo, and had the chance to draw level with his fellow Englishman after captain Paul McGinley opted to play him in four matches in the 16.5-11.5 win at Gleneagles. But while his foursomes partnership with Jamie Donaldson on both Friday and Saturday proved fruitful, the same pairing were beaten in Saturday's fourballs before Westwood fell to Jimmy Walker in the singles.

And Westwood is keen to add to his impressive record when the biennial clash returns at Hazeltine in 2016.

Ryder Cup record scorers

• 25: Sir Nick Faldo (Europe)

  24: Bernhard Langer (Europe)

  23.5: Colin Montgomerie (Europe), Billy Casper (US)

  23: Lee Westwood (Europe), Arnold Palmer (US)

  22.5: Seve Ballesteros (Europe)

  21.5: Lanny Wadkins (US)

  20.5: Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal (Europe)

  20: Lee Trevino (US)

  19: Phil Mickelson (US)

  18.5: Jack Nicklaus (US)

"I have thought about being captain one day but it would be somewhere down the line," he told Sky Sports.

"Hopefully I have one or two more Ryder Cups to play in before I get to the captaincy stage. I am still relatively young at 41 so I'd like to concentrate on playing for the time being and think about the captaincy in six to eight years."

Westwood also backed Darren Clarke's bid to replace Paul McGinley as captain when Europe heads Stateside in two years' time to defend the trophy.

"Paul did a great job and I couldn't really pick any holes in his captaincy whatsoever," he added. "Any future captain should use his model and his template for Ryder Cups going forward.

"People have mentioned Darren and it's about the right time in his career to take up the captaincy.

"He is very popular in the United States so I think he would make a good captain in Minnesota."

When asked where the Gleneagles triumph ranked in his Ryder Cup highlights, Westwood described it as "right up there".

He added: "They are all very special but I always say the first one at Valderrama (in 1997) was very special and the one I remember the most with great fondness - and with Seve as captain.

"But they've all been special. Record wins at Detroit and the K-Club just after that but this one is up there. It was fabulous to play in Scotland in front of those kinds of galleries and to see such a good team performance.

"It is never easy going in as favourites but we embraced that as we thought we deserved it and obviously the team as a whole performed great."

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