Colin Montgomerie talks of stress, tears and party at Celtic Manor
After four hectic days of 2010 Ryder Cup, the captain of European team finally allowed his squad to party and hence celebrate victory.
Also, Colin Montgomerie told the reporters about his experience of 2010 Ryder Cup and the days after it. During Cup days, the European striker would usually wake up at 5 every morning and beat his alarm clock for making his life tired. However,
on Tuesday morning, he was a completely new man with no stress and pressure of the game. For the first time in twelve days, Monty had slept without worrying for the next day.
Montgomerie said, "It was the first night I had slept. I was knackered.....My alarm had gone off at 5am every day here but I beat my alarm clock every morning, That was just nerves and anxiety, I think however this morning, I needed the alarm clock."
The Cup's last night was booked for celebrations only. Colin added, "They (European squad members) deserved to party the night away. I knew, as soon as we won, that I would be on breakfast shows from 7am....I am not a big drinker to be honest with you. I
have woken up with a few thick heads in my time and thought 'That wasn't the thing to do'. So, I left about 12.30 and it was still going strong. I left the trophy with Lee Westwood, who was on stage singing with it and that was the last I saw of it until this
morning when it came down polished and un-fingerprinted and unabashed!"
The magnificent gold trophy was never way from the striker on Tuesday at the press conference at Celtic Manor before he headed home. With it, was a trunk of memories from the greatest four days of his golfing career that summarized with Europe's final score
of 14.5 against America’ s 13.5 at the 2010 Ryder Cup.
While commenting on his closing speech, Monty said, “I really got quite emotional in the locker room afterwards when I started reading my closing remarks ahead of the closing ceremony. I couldn't get them out in a practice I had in a quiet moment....I was
going to find it very difficult to stand up in front of all those people and a television audience to get those words out. I thought I was going to find that more difficult than actually I did.”
Monty gave the credit of his nerves and the closing speech to his vice-captains, who had accompanied him in the locker room before the ceremony. He said that they had a couple of presentations over there with a flag handed to him by his staff. He also thanked
his wife for her support, saying that she did a lovely job as the lady captain of the European team.
He tried to clarify the issue of bursting into tears after Graeme McDowell halved the 17th hole, claiming that they were not tears and he wasn't worried about Graeme’s performance at that moment. On the contrary, someone had sprayed champagne
on the 17th green that went straight into his eyes and brought tears out.
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