After Sandy Lyle played another wonder shot to the 18th green at Augusta National to make the cut for the second year in a row, he revealed for the first time that he had been asked if he was willing to captain the European Ryder Cup team in Wales in 2010.

"There has been a little nudge towards me, yes, but I'm not saying who, where or when," he said, adding that he believed there were others in the mix, including Ian Woosnam for a second captaincy, and Jose Maria Olazabal.

"I thought Woosie would be the prime guy for Wales and maybe I might have got Ireland. I don't know. It was a case of being asked whether I was still interested and that's all that was said."

Lyle's comments came in the wake of an unconfirmed report that Olazabal has actually been offered the job and has allegedly promised to give his answer by July. Olazabal's manager, Sergio Gomez, said yesterday: "This story is new to us and there is no merit in it all. Jose Maria and I are both very surprised."

Lyle, who has never been one to push himself forward, agreed that Olazabal, vice-captain to Nick Faldo this year in Kentucky, would be a good candidate if his current rheumatic problems were to end prematurely his playing career, but he knew nothing about the alleged offer to him.

The 50-year-old Scot also assured he would not be interested in captaining the team after 2010, because he would regard himself as too old beyond that.

"I would like to do it, but if they don't select me I'm not going to stamp my feet and yell. I won't lose sleep, it won't be the end of the world and life will go on," he said.

Lyle, the winner here in 1988, is still held in great affection on both sides of the Atlantic. He is instantly recognisable to the Augusta galleries, where shouts of "Come on Sandy" were readily detectable yesterday in American accents.

He was needing all the support he could get on his way to a three-over-par 75 and a halfway aggregate of 147. As he finished he was joint 43rd with only the top 44 and ties qualifying for the weekend. The wind, however, was picking up and late in the day he had risen to 38th.

Three bogeys and a single birdie, a 2 at the sixth, took Lyle to the turn in 38, and matters worsened at Amen Corner, where he dropped to four over with bogeys at the 11th and 12th, before recovering with a birdie at the long 13th. Another bogey at the 16th looked to have knocked his prospects on the head until that shot at the last.

"It was 170 yards to the front of the green, uphill, and there was no reaction after I hit the shot (a 6-iron). It was a bit like it was in 1988. I heard nothing for what seemed like a minute and then the crowd started clapping. I thought it might be about 10 feet, but it was even nicer to see it two feet away."

How much the slow play of playing partner J B Holmes, one of the known snails on the PGA Tour, affected him can only be conjectured, but Lyle likes to get on with it, and by the 11th his group had lost a clear hole to the group ahead.

On the 10th green, as Holmes stood over his putt interminably, Lyle glanced anxiously back to Soren Hansen, Daniel Chopra and Richard Sterne, who were waiting.

Lyle then holed out in a fraction of the time and you worried that selfish players like Holmes could actually embarrass Lyle into hurrying his putt. It must have been distracting, but Lyle blamed himself.

"I played a lot better than I scored. I hit some wayward mid-iron shots, which was a bit annoying. You shouldn't be missing greens with 8 and 9-irons. That's costly, and it might have cost me about three shots today."