AS THE business end of the golf season gets underway on this side of the Atlantic in Paris on Thursday – the French Open has a prize fund of £3.4 million, the Barclays Scottish Open the following week offers £3m and the Open championship from 16-19 July won't pay out less than £4.2m – Europe's best golfers and their rivals from around the world will compete for more than £10.6m over the next three weeks.
While the strength of the fields at Le Golf National, Loch Lomond and Turnberry is understandably deep, the opportunity to make a mark on the season is also significant. For Scotland's leading lights, in the midst of a disappointing season, there's
a welcome chance to raise the wattage of their games.
A year ago, Colin Montgomerie, who bettered 70 in all four rounds, finished second behind outsider Pablo Larrazabal at the French Open. He took home a cheque for nearly £352,000 as well as renewed hope of playing his way into the Ryder Cup side.
As it turned out, Sir Nick Faldo ignored Monty's claims for a wild card and the Scot now finds himself filling the role of European captain. Whether or not the responsibilities of office have been a positive development for his golf is open to debate. His best finish of an erratic year, 13th, came in the immediate aftermath of the appointment in Dubai.
Since then Montgomerie hasn't finished higher than 25th in any of the ten tournaments he's entered. For a proud champion who has repeatedly insisted he has no interest in making up the numbers in the latter stages of his career, the drop-off in driving accuracy is perhaps the most worrying aspect of his current troubles.
As recently as 2006 and 2007, Monty was still finding nearly 70 per cent of fairways. His driving stat for this season is down to 61.49 per cent. He can still turn in notable rounds such as the 65 he posted in Ireland, but there have also been any number of poor finishes. A man who used to take great delight in bisecting the fairway before moving through the field on Sunday afternoon is now suffering the indignity of engaging reverse. In his last five events, Monty has signed off with scores of 80, 76, 75, 71 and 76.
On the face of things, there's not much evidence to promote a return to contention for Monty any time soon. Having said that, he likes the courses coming up on the schedule and the novelty of entering such high-profile events under the radar for the first time in 20 years could bring its own reward.
One of only five Scots ranked in the top 100 on the Race to Dubai, he's 94th, Monty has compatriots Marc Warren, 79th, Gary Orr, 71st, Alastair Forsyth, 64th, and David Drysdale, 43rd, for company. Of these golfers, only Orr and Drysdale are already exempt into the Open (Paul Lawrie, Sandy Lyle, Richie Ramsay and Martin Laird are the other Scots sure to start on the Ailsa).
Warren is once more producing the kind of results which suggest he's golf's equivalent of a home run hitter in baseball. In other words, when he's good, he's out the park, and when he's bad, he's walking. Of the 13 events Warren has entered this year, he's missed the cut in nine. On the other hand, he was fourth at the 3 Irish Open and 21st at the BMW PGA. With two individual Tour victories under his belt as well as that team success with Monty at the World Cup, Warren knows how to find a way into the winners' enclosure all right. Lack of consistency, on the other hand, is holding back the 28-year-old from fulfilling his potential.
It's fair to say the one Scot who is performing to the best of his ability and reaping the rewards this year for a rich seam of form is Drysdale. The highest ranked Scot on the money list – he's already won more than £304,000 – the Dunbar golfer has spent most of his career battling to keep his head above water. "Previously, I was always in the position where I was chasing cheques in order to keep my card," he reflected. "Now my ambition is to give myself another chance of winning, like the one I had in Seville."
Having received a late invitation, along with the Arizona-based Scot, Martin Laird, to play at Loch Lomond before going on to secure a spot in Paris thanks to a share of fourth at the BMW on Sunday, Drysdale, who came through international final qualifying for Turnberry, is relishing what promises to be the most challenging month of his career.
With a stroke average of 70.6 in 2009 compared to 72 or higher in previous years, the 34-year-old is also playing the most profitable golf. " There may be players out there with more natural talent," observed his manager, Iain Stoddart, yesterday "but none have a bigger heart." In the search to identify a Scot who can shoot out the lights this summer, Drysdale is as likely a contender as any.
