Colin Montgomerie extends a European Tour invitation to Tiger Woods
Colin Montgomerie, the current Tournament Chair at the European Tour has extended an all-out invitation to Tiger Woods to join the European Tour for the moment, suggesting a change of turf in his bid to regain top form.
Monty’s statement came out late on Monday where he invited Woods to play on the tour on the other side of the Atlantic, however, many of the critics have termed it as a sugar-coated insult to the former world number one.
“I’ve asked him as I have invitations available,” Montgomerie told the Daily Mirror. “We haven’t had a reply yet. Tiger looks like he’s going to have nowhere to play for nearly three months.”
Montgomerie’s harsh tone did not leave any doubts that the Englishman actually meant to demean the struggling Woods who just recently suffered a colossal loss at the PGA Championship where he failed to make the cut. He shot the worst opening round of his
career in a major championship, posting a seven-over, 77 at the Atlanta Athletic Club, subsequently failing to make the cut on the second day.
Woods is now facing the embarrassing question of qualifying for the rest of the events of the current season. Ranked number 33rd on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), Woods will still be in hunt for the most of the events but he will not
be featuring in the FedEx Cup Playoffs starting with The Barclays next week. He is also facing a serious threat of not making into the President’s Cup team for the first time in nearly a decade.
Monty continued, “It would be superb if he accepted. I know he has his children to think about, and all that sort of stuff that goes with family commitments, but wouldn’t it be great if he did say yes to any of our European Tour events? If you don’t ask,
you don’t get, so it’s worth a go.”
The family commitments must be of primary concern for Woods who is looking after his two kids who have been missing out on their mother Elin after the divorce. The 14-major-winner has not won a single event for the last two years now and recently made a
comeback to the course after his lingering injuries.
Woods aggravated his already devastated left knee when he opted to play at the Players Championship earlier this year, which forced him to stay off-course in order to recover from the injury. He returned to the Firestone Country Club for the WGC Bridgestone
Invitational where he had won seven times in his 11 starts, but failed to impress the audience.
For now, the former number one has taken some time off from his playing obligations and will be returning for the Australian Open after a break of six weeks. Woods was evidently happy for the lay off and cites it as an opportunity to work on his game with
his coach Sean Foley.
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