If you relax for just one hole at Carnoustie, it will bite you!
COLIN MONTGOMERIE (OVER A WEE DRAM) ON WHY TIGER IS SET TO STRUGGLE
Cruising Loch Lomond on board a yacht while sinking a dram or three would be enough to loosen anyone’s tongue. Colin Montgomerie, however, has already had plenty to say before the whisky arrives.
Montgomerie still needs little encouragement to pour forth his wisdom and has, as ever, been enlightening throughout a day spent at a nearby distillery, creating his own single malt, while we discuss the Open, Tiger Woods, rory Mcilroy and, yes, himself.
As golf returns to ‘Carnasty’, we will see another Jean van de Velde style calamity one day, Monty insists. Mcilroy, by the way, is risking falling into Van de Velde’s trap should he continue with a friend as caddie, he warns.
Woods, meanwhile, has a glint in his eye that tells Monty he is ready to win again — though perhaps not this weekend. And as for the man playing master distiller for the day, well, who could blame him for becoming a little self-indulgent given we’re discussing a championship he played in no less than 22 times which this year will be staged on the links he rates highest of all.
in 2005, Montgomerie was the closest he ever came to lifting the Claret Jug but had to settle for second-place as Woods left the rest eating his dust.
‘Finishing runner-up to the best player who’s ever played the game, that’s something i’ll always take away,’ says Monty. ‘When i finish i’ll think, “i was there. i’ve been in that cauldron, on the 18th green at st Andrews and i holed a 30-footer to beat him on the day, 70 to 71.” Just thought i’d throw that in!’
The Tiger of today, winless in five years and still piecing his game together after years of pain, is a different animal from the ruthless assassin of 13 years ago, and Montgomerie sees no hope of a 15th major win in Angus.
‘ Tiger doesn’t drive the ball straight enough yet to get round Carnoustie,’ he says. ‘i’d love to see him drive the ball better and if he does he’ll have a golden opportunity in a competition.
‘i see his old character returning around the greens, i see the enthusiasm over the putts.
‘Tiger enjoyed the six-foot putts that we hated. it’s a distance you’re expected to hole and expectation is difficult to live up to. it’s like a Premier League team playing against a non-League team. But Tiger loved the expectation. And i’ve seen it again. i never thought i’d ever say i could see Tiger winning a tournament again but i can now. A major? i don’t know.’
Despite holding the course record for many years following a 64 in the 1995 scottish Open, Montgomerie knows that Carnoustie offers no hiding place for a man out of form.
He missed the cut there in 2007, the fifth major in succession that he failed to complete and around the time his status as an elite player was relinquished after a record eight European Order of Merit titles.
‘Carnoustie is not one of the toughest links. Carnoustie is the toughest links,’ he warns. ‘if you were to relax just for one hole, it will come back and bite you.’
There will be one elite player in the field at Carnoustie who does not have a full-time caddie by trade — rory Mcilroy — and Monty sees potential trouble ahead.
‘The caddie is very important to get the player over the line,’ he says. ‘it’s interesting with Mcilroy. The caddie is a friend, Harry Diamond. He sounds like a Bond villain! But is he strong enough to take authority? rory is in charge but he might need something from his caddie. is Harry strong enough to do that? Does he have authority like Jordan spieth’s caddie? Possibly not.’
Pressed to pick a winner, Montgomerie stumbles for a moment before saying: ‘You’ve got to factor in the rub of the draw but defending champion spieth is as good a bet as any.’