Captain Fantastic
In spite of the weight of expectation, Colin Montgomerie will not be allowing those famous shoulders of his to slump during Ryder Cup week. This larger-than-life character may be a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde but we can be pretty sure that we will be seeing the best of him at Celtic Manor, writes Lewine Mair
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rofessional golfers, by the very nature of their work, are apt to put t hemselves f irst but Montgomerie has always been a grand team man. The meerkat in him will be constantly on the lookout on behalf of his men, while he will be no less intent on doing the right thing by Corey Pavin’s team. If, say, an element of the crowd were to hassle the visitors, Montgomerie would make sure something was done about it. By the same token, if a photographer were suddenly to step out of line, the Scot would take a personal interest in the fellow being hung, drawn and quartered. We can rely on Montgomerie to make a thoroughly professional speech at the opening ceremony and, at the same time, to provide the media and the television people with plenty of information. Given the right circumstances, all of it will be entertainingly delivered. From the day his captaincy was announced, there was the feeling that the Scot would force himself to handle even the most difficult elements of his captaincy correctly, starting with the wildcard selections. He promised, for instance, that he would make every effort to speak personally to those players whom he had to disappoint. 40
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When Montgomerie missed out on Nick Faldo’s team for Valhalla, he had a message left for him on his mobile phone. In fairness to Faldo, this six-time major winner had tried to speak to the Scot but was unable to get him at the first time of asking. Montgomerie appreciated the message but it made him doubly determined to talk to everyone in person. “It’s what they deserve,” he said. Mind you, he recently made it abundantly clear that he was not going to enjoy it. “It’s made my job extremely difficult to have to select only three wildcards when we’ve got around twenty men who could cope with the pressures of the Ryder Cup,” he volunteered. He said as much in the week prior to the Open, a time when his concerns were magnified by a new rush of European success. Montgomerie’s four players on the World Points list were Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter – all of which meant that Justin Rose, who had just won twice in the States, had not qualified for an automatic place. The same applied to Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington and the impressive young German Martin Kaymer.
Supreme Scot: Monty after holing the winning putt at the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills
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of golf is ever finished “until the last putt has dropped.” Presumably, the tale will get another airing at Celtic Manor. And it is not just the players who believe that Montgomerie will make a good fist of his role in Wales. Spectators can sense the same. As per usual, they will be on red alert lest Montgomerie catches them sneezing at the wrong moment but, one way or another, they love the feeling of being involved. He can be their friend as often as their foe and there was that lovely instance of the latter during the most recent match at the Belfry. As he was warming up for his singles a spectator made some crack as to how he could do better. Rather than ignoring the jibe or firing back with something worse, Montgomerie good-naturedly called him down to the practice ground to give him a first-hand demonstration. The gesture loosened up the crowd and it loosened up the Scot, who won his match with room to spare. With Montgomerie being the person he is, it was crucial for him during the months leading up to this match to be able to let his prospective team members know that he could still play a bit himself. None of them needed reminding – but
Euro Summit: Colin and the Cup in 2004 (top); Montgomerie celebrates with skipper Seve Ballesteros (bottom) after his and Bernhard Langer's foursomes win in 1997.
“I don’t think any captain has had this dilemma before and I am unfortunately going to have to leave out some very, very good players. We are talking about champions,” he added, shaking his head in disbelief. Montgomerie had plenty of sympathy on that particular front. Neil Coles, Chairman of the PGA European Tour, was chuckling mischievously at just what an extraordinarily difficult job Monty had on his hands. Coles mentioned all three of Donald, Rose and Harrington, and then he asked, “And what’s he going to do about Sergio Garcia?” Garcia, of course, has had his poorest year as a professional and has said that he would not pick himself. Yet everyone knows that Montgomerie has always been hugely admiring of the Spaniard in a Ryder Cup context. Even when he was still a teenager, Garcia had what it takes to lift an entire side. True, he had a poor match under Faldo at Valhalla, picking up a paltry two half points but, up until then, his record was one of played 20, won 14 and halved two. In spite of the gaffes made by Montgomerie across the years – these include this summer’s unhappy revelation of a dalliance with an old flame only months after his 2008 marriage – he is still accorded plenty of respect. The aforementioned Kaymer illustrated to perfection how the younger players see the captain. “He’s a gentleman. You want to behave that bit better in front of him and you want to play that bit better,” he said, prior to playing alongside him in the Scottish Open at Loch 42
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the reminder was issued just the same. It came at Sunningdale when he handed in a 62 over the New Course to qualify for what was his 21st Open championship in a row. When it comes to the big week, he will be happy to let his men get on with things. Though he will have the necessary insight be able to dish out gems of advice in an appropriate manner, he will not be doing as the much-loved Seve Ballesteros in champing at the bit to hit his players’ shots for them. There was that famous day at Valderrama when Bernhard Langer and Montgomerie arrived at the last with a one-hole lead against Lee Janzen and Jim Furyk, but were worryingly placed after Montgomerie had hit into the trees on the right. When they got there, Ballesteros was lurking in the shadows and planning their escape. He told Langer, “If you keep it over this branch and under that one, you could hit a low draw on to the green…” It was as Ballesteros was turning to Montgomerie for support that Langer, with Teutonic good sense, went behind his back and chopped out sideways. (They won their match.)
“It’s made my job extremely difficult to have to select only three wildcards when we’ve got around twenty men who could cope with the pressures of the Ryder Cup.”
Lomond. (Like Montgomerie, Kaymer missed the cut on that occasion). That Montgomerie has a natural air of authority probably has most to do with his on-course success. Despite never managing to collect that elusive major championship title, he won seven Orders of Merit in a row in the 1990s and followed up with another this century – in 2005 to be precise. As for his Ryder Cup record, that is nothing short of magnificent. He was the top scorer with four and a half points out of five in 2002, while he holed the winning putt in 2004. Again, his victory over David Toms in 2006 ensured that he remained unbeaten in the singles over eight Ryder Cups dating back to 1991. He also played the major role in one of the more arresting come-back stories in Ryder Cup history… On his first outing, in the 1991 match at Kiawah Island, he was four down with four to play against Mark Calcavecchia before emerging with half a point. There was some dicey golf played by both down the stretch – Calcavecchia followed Monty into water at the 17th – before Monty was approached by Tony Jacklin on the 18th tee. “If you can stay standing,” said the former Open and US Open champion, “you’ll win this hole.” Montgomerie duly caught the green in two to Calcavecchia’s three and did what he had to do. “I had finished double-bogey, par, doublebogey, par and won every hole,” he recalls. It is a story he has told over and over by way of getting across the message that no game HKGOLFER.COM
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“I want my team to see themselves as favourites and I want them to go out and play that way.”
Ever the bridesmaid: Monty (seen here finishing second to Tiger Woods at St Andrews in 2005) has five runner-up finishes in major championships.
The Monty File DATE OF BIRTH: 23 June 1963 PLACE OF BIRTH: Glasgow, Scotland TURNED PRO: 1987 RYDER CUP RECORD: Played 36: Won 20, Lost 9, Halved 7 PROFESSIONAL WINS: 40 (including 31 victories on the European Tour) MAJOR HEARTACHE: Three-time US Open runner-up (1994, 1997, 2006); Open Championship runner-up (2005); PGA Championship runner-up (1995) ACCOLADES: 1988 Rookie of the Year; eight-time Order of Merit winner (1993-1999, 2005); awarded OBE in 2004
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Montgomerie’s belief in his team is inevitable given the results they have been bringing home. In fairness to him, though, that belief was in place even before the heady rush of summer success. From the outset, he made it plain that he had no intention of pushing for Europe to be seen as underdogs just because they had been thrashed in Kentucky two years before. “The days when we could pass ourselves off as underdogs have long gone,” he said in January. “I want my team to see themselves as favourites and I want them to go out and play that way.” It would be a massive anticlimax if Europe were to fail to recapture the cup but, as Monty has warned, even that runaway European win – 18 ½ - 9 ½ – at Oakland Hills in 2004 included a staggering 11 matches that finished at the 18th. Meanwhile, whatever the result, there will be one question which will go unanswered that week. Namely, how is Montgomerie going to cope in the aftermath of the Ryder Cup, especially when he has no intention of playing on the seniors’ circuit. He maintains that he will be at anything other than a fidgety loose end. He has pointed to how there are courses to design and how there is plenty of work to be done for the cancer foundation he set up in honour of his mother. Simultaneously, he has owned to thoughts of riding across America on a motorbike. The latter will probably never happen but, equally so, it is difficult to picture this engaging but enigmatic figure sitting contentedly at home. HKGOLFER.COM