Lorne Rubenstein | |
The ever moody Colin Montgomerie
July 17, 2007
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland. -- Ah, Monty. Anybody and everybody who follows golf at all seems to have an opinion on the 41-year-old Scotsman who has led the European Order of Merit eight times but who has yet hey, there's still time to win a PGA Tour event or major championship. Most everybody also has a story, especially the folks who cover golf. Where Colin Montgomerie goes, he leaves a trail.
 Photo: © Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images |
Colin Montgomerie while getting ready for the British Open at Carnoustie with his coach Denis Pugh and his caddie. |
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Here's a gem that Jock MacVicar, the gentlemanly golf writer for the Scottish Daily Express, told yesterday in the media centre at Carnoustie. He recalled a Scottish Open where his late colleague Alister Nicol was working as the press officer for the tournament. As it happened, Monty didn't have a very good day. Nicol, doing his duty, wanted to chat with him for a moment.
"Well, you're disappointed with that finish, I'm sure," MacVicar recalls Nicol saying to Monty, who said, "I've had enough of you." Monty then turned on his heels and wandered down the corridor. There, in fact, he kicked at a door. Having exorcised his demon of the moment, Monty returned to Nicol.
"How did you play today?" Nicol asked Monty.
"That's better," he responded, and went on to have that chat with Nicol.
I too have my Monty memories. It's impossible to have covered golf for any length of time without having a few Monty stories.
Photo: © Doug Pensinger/Getty Images | | Colin Montgomerie during the 1997 U.S. Open. |
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There was one occasion during a U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland that is especially vivid. Monty was over the ball on the tee at one hole, and appeared to be taking a long time. He was fidgety, and finally stood straight up like a jockey in the saddle and addressed a USGA official standing nearby.
"I can't play me shot with that helicopter there," Monty told the official, pointing to the flying machine that was hovering above.
"I'm afraid I can't do anything about that," the official told the aggrieved golfer. Monty huffed and, having addressed his problem and the official, again addressed the ball. Of course he hit a perfect drive.
Then there was a press conference in advance of the opening round at the Anderson Consulting Match-Play Championship, soon to become the Accenture Match-Play. The hot item that week was the world rankings and how they are compiled. I asked Monty whether he understood the process.
I can't reconstruct our exchange precisely, but it went along these lines.
"I have some idea," Monty said. "Do you understand it? It's your job to explain it to your readers, isn't it?"
Photo: © Stuart Franklin/Getty Images | | There are always mood changes with Montgomerie |
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"I have a basic understanding," I answered, "but it's complicated. Since you play the game for a living, and there's so much discussion about the rankings this week, I thought you would certainly be able to explain the way they're done."
"I'm sorry, but I don't know you," Monty said. "Are you out here regularly?"
By now the press room was dead quiet. Monty seemed to be enjoying himself, and so was I, and I told him that yes, I was a regular, not that it should matter.
"When I have a problem with understanding," Monty said, "I consult my wife. She knows." That was long before Monty and his wife Eimar were divorced.
The exchange ended after a few back and forth comments. Later my British colleagues told me they quite enjoyed our so-called conversation. So did I, and so, I think, did Monty.
Some time later I arranged an interview with Monty. He agreed to do it after his round the next day. But when the time came, he pretended not to remember our appointment. I reminded him of the discussion we'd have the day before to set it up. He asked how much time I wanted. I said only about five minutes, and he agreed to have a short talk.
Photo: © Andrew Redington/Getty Images | | Colin Montgomerie does have a pleasant side to him, sometimes. |
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Twenty minutes later we concluded our conversation. Monty could not have been more engaging or engaged. He shook my hand and said, "That was lovely. Let's chat again sometime."
That's Monty, Mr. Jekyll and Hyde. To be sure, it's easy to roast the fellow because, as somebody said yesterday, "His face is his flaw. He shows every emotion" Rhod McEwan, a man about books whose booth in the merchandise tent at Carnoustie is always busy, put it another way.
"Monty is brilliant when he's feeling good, but when he's down, he is very down."
Colin Callander, the former editor of the U.K. magazine Golf Monthly, has had many dealings with Monty. He was covering the Benson & Hedges International Open on the European Tour one year when he introduced Monty to his son Bruce. Six months later Callander found himself on the practice tee at the U.S. PGA Championship. He and Monty were having a chat.
"Monty uses tees with the Scottish Saltire (the cross of St. Andrews on the Scottish flag) on them," Callander said. "Monty took a few and said, 'You'd better give these to Bruce.' He'd like that. Monty had met my son only that once. He has an incredible memory, and he can also be a fantastic conversationalist on almost anything. He can also be impossible."
For the impossible side of the man, Callander remembered an experience at the same Benson & Hedges tournament where he'd introduced his son to Monty.
"I'd arranged to meet him for a piece I was writing for Golf Monthly," Callander, now the press officer for the Women's British Open, said. "Monty played poorly and he blanked everybody. But he appeared 30 minutes later, apologized, and spoke with me and the others."
And what about Monty's golf? What about his chances this week in the Open? For an informed view, Callander suggested a look at Monty's putting very early on.
"He's always worried about his putting," Callander said. "We're all a bit like that, but he's an extreme example. If he holes a putt on the first green, even if it's three or four feet, he'll putt well. Watch him on the first green, and you know how he'll do."
And there you have it, Monty, a most unusual man.
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