SWINDON's two-time Ryder Cup star David Howell will have a say on the identity of Europe's next Ryder Cup captain after being named as the final member of the panel which will select the skipper for the 2016 match in the United States.

Howell, who worked as a pundit for Sky Sports during last month's Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, joins the three previous European skippers - this year's winner Paul McGinley, 2012 winner Jose Maria Olazabal and 2010 victor Colin Montgomerie, as well as George O'Grady, the chief executive of the European Tour, on the panel to select the skipper for the event in Minnesota in two years' time.

Broome Manor member Howell, 39, played in Europe’s Ryder Cup triumphs in both 2004 and 2006 and was nominated by the European Tour’s tournament committee at their meeting on Tuesday night in Portugal, ahead of the Portugal Masters, in which he is playing this week.

This will be the third process used to select the Ryder Cup captain since players from Continental Europe joined the fold for the 1979 contest, under the captaincy of John Jacobs, at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.

From then until 1997, when the late Seve Ballesteros led Europe in his homeland at Club de Golf Valderrama, the European captain was chosen by the Ryder Cup committee, who selected Jacobs again in 1981, Tony Jacklin in 1983, 1985, 1987 and 1989, and Bernard Gallacher in 1991, 1993 and 1995.

However, in 1999, Mark James was the first European captain to be nominated by the European Tour’s tournament committee and ratified by the Ryder Cup board, a process which went on to select Sam Torrance (2002), Bernhard Langer (2004), Ian Woosnam (2006), Sir Nick Faldo (2008), Montgomerie (2010), Olazábal (2012) and McGinley (2014).

It is expected that the decision on the 2016 captain will be made in the early part of next year.

McGinley led Europe to a 16 ½-11 ½ triumph at Gleneagles.