25 YEARS ON... MONTY’S MISERY
MONTY’S PLAY-OFF LOSS 25 YEARS ON
SOMEWHERE in a parallel universe, Brooks Koepka would spend this week taking another step on his seemingly inexorable journey towards global domination.
Having racked up four majors in just under two years, the bighitting American was beginning to leave his rivals choking on his exhaust fumes prior to the sport going into shutdown.
Certainly, the prospect of Koepka going toe-to-toe with a revitalised Rory McIlroy was one of the key plot lines heading into the 2020 season.
Having won the US PGA for a first time in 2018 and then successfully defending it last season, Koepka would have spent this week gunning for a hat-trick of titles.
The tournament’s rejigged calendar slot in May has now been pushed back to its more natural home in August when, all things being well, it can hopefully go ahead as the season’s only major.
Scheduled to be held at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, it will mark the 25th anniversary since Colin Montgomerie came so agonisingly close to breaking his duck in majors just a little further down the Californian coast.
The Scot’s record in majors is a complex, nuanced business. The greatest European golfer of his generation, there is an obvious sense of regret at the fact he never quite managed to get across the line.
It was often a thrilling and painful experience in equal measure watching Montgomerie trade blows with his rivals in pursuit of the game’s four greatest honours.
The Open Championship in 2005 was a case in point when, on home soil at St Andrews and backed by a raucous Scottish crowd, Monty was the man hunting the Tiger.
A sizzling second-round 66 from Montgomerie teed up a showdown in the final pairing on Saturday afternoon with Woods, the undisputed best player on the planet at that point.
Monty’s challenge would fade slightly over the weekend as he finished five shots adrift in second place, although, as many others would testify, there was no shame in being buried under a barrage of birdies from Woods.
At the US Open at Winged Foot in 2006, Montgomerie suffered a meltdown at the 72nd and final hole which will surely rank as the biggest regret of his career.
In carding a calamitous doublebogey from the middle of the fairway, Montgomerie went on to finish one shot behind the eventual winner, Geoff Ogilvy.
That would be the fifth and final time he finished as runner-up in a major, earning him the unenviable tag of perhaps being the greatest player never to win one of the game’s elite prizes.
If Winged Foot was the nadir, however, what happened at Riviera 11 years previously at the PGA was a bizarre experience in a number of ways.
Truth be told, he really didn’t do much wrong.
The story starts not on the Sunday afternoon when Montgomerie fought it out with Steve Elkington, but on the
Saturday evening when, frankly, neither player looked to have a prayer of victory.
Ernie Els had been imperious over the opening three days. Rounds of 66, 65 and 66 had seen the big South African carve a three-shot lead over Jeff Maggert and Mark O’Meara.
Montgomerie was five shots adrift, with Elkington a further shot back, as they embarked on a day of unrelenting drama under the sun-baked Californian skies.
With Els faltering to a final round of 72, Montgomerie carded a magnificent 65, with Elkington going one better by shooting a 64 as the two men finished tied on 17-under par.
Indeed, given that Montgomerie had birdied the last three holes in regulation play, there looked to be only one winner as they headed into a sudden-death play-off.
In doing so, he drained a monster putt for birdie on the 18th to force matters into extra-time.
He was on a charge. The Wanamaker trophy was his for the taking.
‘Heading back to that 18th tee, I was the heavy, heavy favourite because of the way I had just finished my fourth round,’ wrote Monty in his autobiography.
‘I believed I was going to win and set about playing the hole as I had done 20 minutes earlier.’
Playing the 18th again as the first play-off hole, however, Montgomerie was ambushed by anti-climax. If he felt emotionally beaten up, then it was the putter of Elkington which had caused the most damage.
With both players having found the fairway and green in regulation, the fact that Montgomerie’s ball had come to rest about five feet closer than that of his opponent only reaffirmed his position as favourite.
But Elkington stepped up first and duly drained a brilliant putt from around 25 feet, with the Scot’s subsequent effort to extend the play-off sliding past on the low side of the cup.
And that was that. From being in a position of command, it was over in a flash. Monty’s challenge was gone in 60 seconds.
‘My drive almost ended up in the divot I had left at the 72nd and my eight-iron was dead on line, though it stopped a little sooner than I had anticipated, about 20 feet short of the pin,’ he wrote.
‘Steve’s ball was outside mine but he had the easier route to the hole. He made his putt, I missed — and all I could do was congratulate him.
‘That’s the game, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that was one more major shock as far as I was concerned.
‘I truly believed the title would be mine but, looking back, I wonder if that birdie, birdie, birdie finish was my undoing.
‘The adrenalin had stopped pumping and maybe that is why that eight-iron stopped short.’
Elkington, the Australian whose triumph at Riviera proved to be his one and only victory in a major championship, said: ‘I just played the round of my life.’
Goodness knows, he had to. With Montgomerie starting the final day a shot ahead and going on to card a 65, Elkington must have known that only his Sunday best would suffice.
When the dust had settled, both men had between them fired eight rounds out of eight in the 60s. It had been an exhibition of sensational scoring, with drama to match.