A desperate Colin Montgomerie needs a strong finish to qualify for the Open Championship
A dejected Colin Montgomerie is perhaps facing what could be the twilight of his career if he is not able to post a strong finish in this week’s Barclays Scottish Open at Castle Stuart. And not just any other strong finish, but a strictly Top-5 finish is
what will guide him through to the Open Championship ahead.
“It's the last throw of the dice here,” Montgomerie said. “For 21 years I've played in the Open, so I'd like not to have that record broken. It's going to be difficult, very difficult but I've got a good draw with Luke Donald and Peter Hanson, two of my
Ryder Cup team. Hopefully they can pull me along.”
The season has so far been a disappointing one for the Englishman and he has seen the worst rounds of his career on both sides of the Atlantic. He failed to qualify for the US Open after his sloppy performance ahead of the event and an over-par score on
the Sectional Qualifying rounds. The 48-year-old “Monty” was visibly dejected and disappointed with his performance. Without a victory for the last two years, Montgomerie is facing, what many refer in golf as, “the drying out phase”.
“I started my term as Ryder Cup captain at 47 in the world and finished it outside the Top 400. That shows what it did to my career,” Montgomerie said, referring to his performance for the season.
Despite having 40 professional wins in his career both on PGA and European Tours, Montgomerie remains as one of the few English anomalies who have not won a major, although having a stellar career in the sport. He was the first European to play his 500th European
Tour title Open de Andalucía in 2009 and also successfully led the European Team to a thrilling victory at the Ryder Cup last year. He is often regarded as one of the torch-bearers of European golf alongside late Seve Ballesteros.
In the recent years, and primarily due to his age, Montgomerie has developed sloppy shoulders, a droopy walking style and his trademark baggy pants often give viewers the idea that he is rather miserable on the golf course. He also indulges in unusual a
strange rants with the crowd and bystanders and often tells the score keepers and the spectators to be silent while making his shot. His unusual behavior has been cited as one of the reasons he loses his concentration on his shots, and ends up posting a bad
score.
Currently ranked at 285th on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), Montgomerie needs to break into the Top-50 to automatically qualify for the third major of the season, which, keeping his current form in consideration is highly unlikely. A
failure will probably see the end of an era of one of the great English golfers of recent times.
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