Colin Montgomerie gives early Ryder Cup preview of Team Europe

Colin Montgomerie amassed a record eight European Tour Order of Merit titles over his career and sits 10^th all time on the DP World Tour’s career money list—earning just under €25 million for his pin-hunting prowess.

The Golf Hall of Famer hasn’t stopped ascending leaderboards, stringing together consecutive top-25 starts in his last three starts on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, including a T3 performance at the Insperity Invitational last month.

While the 59-year-old Scot enjoys dining and palling around with former Ryder Cup teammates and competitors, he doesn’t fly across the Atlantic on a regular basis for hits and giggles.

“I’m here to win. I’m not here to finish 30^th every week. If I did that, I think I’d be walking my dogs, to be honest with you. I’d go home and walk my two Labradors. I’ve still got that drive and that passion, and as long as that remains, I’ll be out here. Travel is harder all the time, the hired cars, the airports, the hotels and all that goes on behind the scenes. So, I’ve got to have that fire. I got to have it and I have it still,” Montgomerie said.

Speaking of fire in the belly, Monty has served as a brand ambassador for Loch Lomond since they struck a partnership to align their single malt scotch with the Open Championship six years ago, timed to coincide with the whisky brand’s U.S. launch. Montgomerie’s signature graces the cartons of the annual Open Special Edition releases.

“Being affiliated with the Open Championship was a biggie for me. Although I haven’t won the Open—I finished second to Tiger in 2005—I felt that it was a great connection to become the spirit of the Open,” Montgomerie said of the collaboration who is proud to represent his country’s two biggest cultural exports.

“The passion of producing a good bottle of whisky is a very Scottish trait and we are very passionate about golf, very proud that we are the only country that can call ourselves the home of golf,” he added.

Ryder Cup

Monty has a sterling Ryder Cup resume having never lost a singles match in the biennial grudge match pitting Europe against America in a team golf showdown. The Ryder Cup will be played in Italy in the Fall while pundits give the U.S. a strong edge, the last time the American squad won across the pond was in 1993. Asked for his crystal ball prediction, Monty, who will be attending the tournament at Simone Golf and Country Club just outside Rome as a spectator expressed his thoughts.

“I wouldn’t have given Europe much chance a years ago. I think we have improved a lot with our top four players in Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick who won again recently at the RBC
RY
. There’s a good top four. Then you add in Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Tyrrell Hatton and there’s a good next four. Then there’s some rookies and first timers. It’s not a bad team actually and we haven’t lost at home for 30 years. It’s a record that almost nobody can understand, the Belfry was the last time,” Montgomerie stated.

“So we have a record to sustain. We will be fighting like hell. The Americans are good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a matter of who holes the putts at the right time. It’s a putting competition, match play, it’s a very short game. I’m not saying that some of our guys will beat Scottie Scheffler over their careers or over a tournament but over a round, they could. That’s why the Ryder Cup is so good and why the rankings go out the window,” he added.

Serving as team captain in 2010, Montgomerie added a chapter to his Ryder Cup legacy, skippering Europe to the magic 14 ½ point mark, but afterwards he said that he would never captain again. Revisiting the question, Monty’s sentiments on the subject have not. shifted.

“I was told by Sam Torrance, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam, three winning captains, ‘if you’ve won it, get out.’ Why go back into the lion’s den when it’s a fifty-fifty coin toss to be honest. Mine was within half a point. I was fortunate and lucky enough to be selected as a captain and very fortunate to win and leave happily. If anyone came to me and asked if I wanted to captain the team next year, I’d say ‘I’m sorry, I’ve been there, done that,” he said.

Slow Play

On the scourge of slow play that has been getting renewed attention of late, Jack Nicklaus recently told Golfweek: “they need to really make an example and stay with it, “Because it’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over a ball for a half an hour.”

Monty is on the same page when it comes to quelling sloth on tour and thinks the only solution is to come down hard on offenders.

“We need a deterrent and a deterrent is not money because these guys are earning what they are right now so what we have to do is a shot penalty and we have to start at the top. If one of the top players is given a shot penalty for slow play, my God that’ll trigger things,” he said.

“A shot penalty has to be the order of the day and if it happens again it doubles up—so it’s two shots, then four shots, then eight shots. Slow play is a real bugbear of mine. It does my blooming head in, it really does because I’m quite quick and you can only go as quick as the slowest player. It is inconsiderate, unjust and a shot penalty is the only way to go,” Montgomerie added.

Monty was brought up in an era when a three-hour round of golf was the norm and now that has stretched to nearly five hours and he feels the tours may want to take a page out the short lived, yet brisker-pace inducing Shot Clock Masters.