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The Shocking True Tabloid Tale of Colin Montgomerie!
Monty's made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2004. Whose fault is that? In his prime, when he won his "Magnificent Seven" Order of Merit crowns on the European Tour from 1993 to '99, there was no more finely calibrated golfer. A pure feel player with a languid, upright swing, Montgomerie prided himself on two things: hitting it straight and never having to practice hitting it straight."Have you seen him?" Steve Elkington asked Nick Price one day. "He's the only guy who could drive it up a gnat's ass every hole." Montgomerie lived for such praise. His self-esteem came from his scorecard. "As players, you are ranked every day according to your score and that preys on your mind," he wrote in The Real Monty, his 2002 autobiography. He crowed that at the 1997 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club, "My first round was a 65 that Phil Mickelson described as 'the best Major round I've ever seen.' "
It's only a slight exaggeration to say, as one of his former caddies did at Troon, that Montgomerie would rather bogey the first 17 holes and birdie 18, in front of the most fans, than vice versa. Montgomerie's hypersensitive circuitry has hurt him in the distraction-heavy majors, with their bloated press corps and big, often boisterous crowds. He saw everything and heard more, and became a fan target for barking back at hecklers and accidental noisemakers, starting a crackling two-way dialogue that was as good as career suicide. "Cut that out!" he snapped at a Mickelson fan who shouted, "You da man!" after a Mickelson drive at the '97 U.S. Open. "Sorry about that," the fan said. "No, you're not," Montgomerie shot back. "Yes, I am," the guy insisted. "No, you're not. You're not sorry at all," Montgomerie said. "You're right," said the fan, realizing the flustered Scotsman wouldn't take yes for an answer. "I'm not!" Montgomerie went on to finish runner-up to Ernie Els, done in by a second-round 76 in which he called one fan a "pillock" (slang for penis) and yelled, "Why don't you save that for the Ryder Cup!" He had already lost the '94 Open to Els in a playoff that included Loren Roberts, and the '95 PGA.Championship to Elkington when the latter rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole. "Two playoffs, that's very close," says Ryder Cup teammate Padraig Harrington. "That's a roll of a ball. People have played worse and won. But he should have got into contention more during those seven [Order of Merit] years. Eventually someone would have given him one."
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