COLIN Montgomerie has dismissed claims that his decision not to play in either the SAS Masters or the KLM Open after missing the cut at the US PGA was evidence that he does not believe he will make the Ryder Cup team.
As he finalised preparations for a return to competition at the £1.4million Johnnie Walker championship today, the Scot insisted: "There's no (sense of] resignation in any way, shape or form."
The only European golfer ever to play on
five winning teams against the USA, Monty responded to questions about his recent absence from the fray by cautioning: "You're reading too much into that. Hopefully, I'm past the stage of justifying my Ryder Cup potential. Everybody here, and I'm sure I also speak for the captain (Nick Faldo], understands my love of the Ryder Cup. That's how I will be remembered."
While he hasn't spoken to Faldo and has "absolutely no idea" what he needs to accomplish over the PGA Centenary course to give the captain pause for thought on Sunday, Montgomerie accepts the very least required of him over the next four days is evidence of a significant return to form.
Since he was runner-up at the French Open in June, Monty has finished 24th at the European Open, 58th at the Open, 77th at Bridgestone and missed cuts at Loch Lomond and the US PGA. It's a sequence of mediocre performances which has undermined his hopes of gaining a wild card for an event he hasn't missed since 1991.
"To get selected, I've got to show form – yes, of course," he agreed. "But I haven't become a bad player. I've just been out of form and have been for the last month. So I'm someone who is not really showing the form I'd like to at this stage.
"But there's a tournament left to go and I'm one of a number of players that would love to show the captain some form at this stage. I look forward to trying to achieve that. After a week's holiday away from the game and a week of practice at Gleneagles in the rain, I feel very confident about setting off and trying to win this event."
Having come close to success on the PGA Centenary in 2006 when he was thwarted by Paul Casey in the final round – he's finished in the top ten here three times over the last five years – as well as claiming the runner-up spot to Peter O'Malley at the Scottish Open over the King's in 1992, Montgomerie believes his capacity to perform well in Perthshire under the gun can boost his case for inclusion.
"I've got to strive towards putting together at the right time one of my best performances," he went on. "I've done that a few times in my career, needing to win tournaments and doing it. This is another one I would love to achieve. It will be an exciting weekend for everybody because I feel the (captain's] pick situation isn't as cut and dried as it's been in past years.
"Recently, I just haven't had the consistency I base my game around.The good shots are still as good as they ever were, I'm just throwing in the odd poor one. But I think I've worked that out over the past week and go into this tournament knowing that my best performance will be good enough. If I play to the best of my ability, I can win here."
Montgomerie has kept things pretty simple over the years on the technical side – his swing is little changed from the boy captured on film in Troon more than 30 years ago – but has enlisted the aid of technology this week in a bid to add another 15 or 20 yards to his drives. He feels this extra distance could help him make more birdies on the five par 5s which provide rich scoring opportunities on the PGA Centenary.
"If I want to win here, then I'm going to have to be more aggressive than normal," he confided. "I'm looking for an extra 20 yards off the tee and think I've got 15 of them. That's what I was doing on the range (on Tuesday]. I've never been into fancy technical stuff before, but I've been trying to find the right launch angles."
Lee Westwood, in second spot behind Padraig Harrington in the Order of Merit, is the 10-1 favourite to clinch the first prize of £233,330 on a lay-out where the Englishman's driving skills will be a valuable asset. Among the 22 Scots in the field of 156, Montgomerie and Alastair Forsyth are listed at 40-1 while the inconsistent form of defending champion Marc Warren is reflected in odds of 50-1.
In terms of horses for courses, mark you, Soren Hansen, currently ninth in the Ryder Cup standings, will surely take plenty of heart from the fact he finished third here in 2007 and was runner-up in 2006.
Darren Clarke, on the other hand, will have to overcome a personal dislike for the PGA Centenary. An impressive winner at the KLM Open, the Ulsterman knows he has plenty to play for this week as well. He and Paul Casey are regarded as favourites to claim Faldo's two captain's picks for the trip to Valhalla, with Ian Poulter also relying on Faldo's generosity to seal his berth on the team after opting to play in America this weekend instead of at Gleneagles, where fifth place would have secured him a Ryder Cup place.
Clarke has lower expectations this weekend, "The course doesn't really fit my eye," he remarked. "Maybe the fact I made so many bogeys here last year didn't help. Apart from the Ryder Cup, I have a lot of goals I want to achieve. I feel pretty good with where my game is right now and am much more relaxed and calm on the course."
As for Poulter pulling out to focus on the US tour's FedEx Cup and also fulfil the minimum requirement of 15 tournaments stateside, Clarke added: "Most of us would have liked to see him trying to qualify."
The full article contains 1038 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
