Colin Montgomerie hails Europe as dominant force in world golf
Maybe he's feeling just a little bit buoyant after that victory at Celtic Manor, but at a HSBC Charity Golf Day in Hong Kong, victorious Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie took time out to rhapsodise about the current state of European golf.
Players from the European Tour have won three of this year's four majors, with Graeme McDowell winning the US Open, South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen taking the Open, and Martin Kaymer winning the PGA Championship.
And even leaving aside the team victory in Wales last week, where Monty's men faced off against the best of the USA and won, the current world rankings table features five European players - Lee Westwood, the aforementioned Kaymer, Paul Casey, Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy. True, Tiger Woods is still No. 1 - but he appears set to lose that ranking imminently, as the Scot pointed out.
"I think Lee [Westwood] will be No.1 even if he doesn't play," said Montgomerie. "If Tiger [Woods] does not change his schedule he will lose his No.1 spot. It is just the way the world rankings work."
But Monty sees Europe's current success as more than just a flash in the pan.
"We have always bowed to America's dominance of the world rankings, with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson one and two respectively," said Montgomerie. "But now we don't just have Lee Westwood but also Martin Kaymer coming up as well.
"There is a changing of the guard towards Europe and also the European Tour."
Montgomerie has always been a cheerleader for the European Tour, choosing to play in Europe in the prime of his career rather than choosing to join the more lucrative PGA Tour. On that theme, the 47-year-old will have been delighted by Lee Westwood's recent decision to commit to the European Tour, rather than divide his time between Europe and the US in 2011.
But other European stars are bound for American shores next year. Graeme McDowell has already confirmed he plans to join the PGA Tour next season, while Kaymer, the brilliant 25-year-old German who won his third tournament on the bounce last week with victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, has admitted he is still undecided about where he will play next year.
If he can claim the No. 1 spot spending most of his time in Europe, maybe Kaymer will see no need to compete in America. Then again, as the best player on the planet, perhaps the prodigious talent from Dusseldorf will want to ply his trade on the world's biggest golfing stage, which surely remains the PGA Tour, whatever Monty would have you believe. Even a wounded Tiger is still golf's biggest draw - and as Monty himself points out, the current world No. 1 can't be counted out yet.
"Knowing Tiger as I do he will go out and win the HSBC Champions event. He will not like to be No.2 at anything and he will come out fighting," Montgomerie said of the 14-time major winner.
"The only thing Lee can do is come over for the HSBC Champions and win. He is playing as well as anyone in the world of golf right now and he will be as anxious to win in Shanghai as Tiger will.
"It has got very close and if Martin Kaymer wins a couple of events before then he could be number one, so it is fantastic for the event."
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