US OPEN | COLIN MONTGOMERIE
The
Bridesmaid Colin Montgomerie, heroic Ryder Cup player, eight-time European Order of Merit champion and recent Hall of Fame inductee, famously never won a major – although he did come agonisingly close on four occasions at the US Open, writes Lewine Mair.
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Every time the US Open comes around, some well-meaning soul will remind Colin Montgomerie of those occasions – there were four of them – when he missed out on winning that major by the proverbial whisker.
European Tour Order of Merits. At the same time, he accepted that the player’s Ryder Cup record – Montgomerie never lost a single in his eight appearances – was similarly impressive. However, especially in the case of the latter, he made it plain that any amount of wins in a Ryder Cup context could not compare with a ‘major’ triumph. “In the Ryder Cup, he said during a visit to Loch Lomond a day or so after he had made his feelings public, “you only have to beat one person on a single day. In a major, you have to beat 150 odd players over four days ... There is no comparison.”
So close: Monty reacts to a missed putt during the 1997 US Open at Congressional; the Scotsman (inset) making his acceptance speech into the World Golf Hall of Fame last month
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This year, the Scot might find such recollections altogether more painful than usual for, had he succeeded in seizing any one of those opportunities, he could well have avoided the latest ‘Monty controversy’. Or, to play it safe, what was the latest controversy in this inimitable character’s life when this magazine went to press. On the same May day as Montgomerie was admitted to the World Golf Hall of Fame, Tony Jacklin, a former Open and US Open champion, declared that Hall of Fame honours should go only to those who had won majors. While stressing that he had “nothing personal” against Montgomerie, he said that the Scot did not belong in that company. In his eyes, the only “worthy” players were those who were major winners. Jacklin did not deny that Montgomerie, the 2005 Hong Kong Open champion, had done something pretty special in winning eight
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Back in 1992, Jack Nicklaus actually congratulated Monty both to his face and on TV for becoming the first Briton to capture the title in 22 years after he carded a brilliant final-round 70 in high winds.
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Jacklin, who reminded his audience that Raymond Floyd shared his sentiments, said that his vote – all Hall of Famers have a vote – had gone to Ian Woosnam, the 1991 Masters champion. That said, Jacklin moved on to the hub of the matter; the thing that would seem to have riled him and the other over 50s rather more than anything else about Montgomerie’s new status. Where he and the other seniors had had to work their tails off to get into the Champions Tour in the States, Monty, thanks to his Hall of Fame credentials, was how an automatic qualifier for that particular little goldmine. You would have to suspect that the senior contingent might well have been inclined to let the matter lie had not Monty made the somewhat rash comment that he was taking aim at a Grand Slam of senior majors. Tom Watson, rather than Jacklin, was the first to speak out on that front. 66
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While this quintuple Open champion conceded that it would make for a ‘major’ story when Montgomerie joined the Champions Tour, he none the less wasted no time in indicating that he might find the senior scenario a whole lot tougher than he thought. “I fully expect Colin to play well out here as he still drives the ball great and can hole putts, too,” said Watson, who won the Hong Kong Open title in 1992, 13 years before Montgomerie. “But the question for Colin and others like him is, ‘Can they dominate the Tour?’ The only two to have done that in the Tour’s history are Lee Trevino and Hale Irwin.” Monty does have this habit of putting his foot in it – of that there is no doubt. Only last year, he made the mistake of putting himself forward for a second stint at the Ryder Cup captaincy when he would have done better to keep a dignified silence and see if they, the committee, came to him. After all, there was every reason to suppose that they might. He had done a first-class job in every respect in winning at Celtic Manor in 2010 and it would have been madness not to take him into account when they were pondering on who would be best for Gleneagles, a venue which is no more than 10 minutes away from his home. In the event, the mere fact that he had HKGOLFER.COM
indicated that he was the man for the job seemed to galvanise the minds of those who felt that the role should not be hogged by one individual. Not at a time when there were too many players with sound captaincy credentials for too few Ryder Cups. Monty could not have been more generous when the post was given to Paul McGinley but the coverage of events had not been the best from his point of view. Going back to the vexed question of how he qualified for the Hall of Fame without winning a major, how close did he get in those aforementioned US Opens? Back in 1992, Jack Nicklaus actually congratulated him both to his face and on TV for being the first Briton to capture the title in 22 years. (Jacklin won his US Open in 1970). Montgomerie had posted a last-round 70 for an aggregate of 288 which, given the high winds at Pebble Beach, looked like an unassailable tally. Then came Tom Kite and Jeff Sluman, playing together and involved in an skirmish so intense that the elements were only of secondary import. HKGOLFER.COM
Both men overtook the luckless Monty, with Kite finishing first and Sluman second. “I don’t,” Montgomerie would say later, “harbour any ill will towards Nicklaus for what he said. I was pretty damned positive that I had won and thousands of others shared that view.” Two years later, in 1994, he pulled up on the same 279 tally as Loren Roberts and Ernie Els, a situation which paved the way for the following morning’s 18-hole play-off. On this occasion, as he has since admitted, he donned a dark shirt which did not marry with the sticky heat. He was hot and bothered even before he began par, double-bogey, double-bogey on his way to the 78 which had him missing sudden-death between Roberts and Els by four shots. Els won that day and he would defeat Montgomerie again at Congressional in 1997. Monty’s mistake that year was to wait for the crowd to calm down at the 18th before he tackled the five-footer he needed on the nearby 17th green to stay level with the South African. When it came to him that the crowd were not
Monty was a stalwart for Europe during countless Ryder Cups, seen here celebrating at the 2006 match at Celtic Manor with Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey (top); letting things slide at the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot, where he squandered his best – and probably last – chance of major success HK GOLFER・JUN 2013
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Winged Foot in 2006 was more painful. He will tell you that the biggest ‘if only’ attached to his eventual loss to Geoff Ogilvy was his choice of a 7-iron for his approach into the green.
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Another runner-up finish came at the 2005 Open Championship at St Andrews, although Tiger Woods was really in a class of his own on that particular week 68
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remotely interested in keeping a respectful silence for overseas players, it was too late. “By the time I felt ready to putt,” remembered the Scot, “the doubts you can have over any length of putt if you stand over it for long enough had caught up with me.” He missed and Els won by one. Winged Foot in 2006 was more painful. He will tell you that the biggest ‘if only’ attached to his eventual loss to Geoff Ogilvy was his choice of a 7-iron for his approach into the green after a brilliant drive. He miscued and ended up with a six when a par four would have given him the win he craved. Away from the US Open, a holed 30-footer from Steve Elkington did for Monty in the USPGA of 1995, while he also had a second place behind Tiger Woods in the 2005 Open at St Andrews. Mind you, it was not a close second.
Though he was in the picture over the first half of the final round, Tiger gave him a mauling over the back, eventually winning by five. The main thrust of Montgomerie’s excellent speech on the night of his Hall of Fame Ceremony came as no surprise. It was about those lost majors, the ones that got away. “I’ve enjoyed thoroughly my exploits in major championships but I just haven’t been fortunate, or whatever it takes,” he began. “There’s always a time when fortune comes into the mix, whether it be for you or against your opponent and it so happens that I haven’t had the fortune to walk through the door. It has been ajar many a time. I just haven’t been able to walk through it.” The door to the Hall of Fame is another thing again. Though Jacklin and Floyd, to name just two, may not have voted for him, 51 per cent did. And maybe, just maybe, that 51 per cent were taking into account the fact that Monty makes more waves than many of those who have a major or majors under their belts. The invitation landed on his doormat and there is surely no one so curmudgeonly as to think he should have turned it down. HKGOLFER.COM