Montgomerie supports tour title rule change

A change to the rule which saw Vijay Singh named the European Tour’s player of the year award this week would have the support of Colin Montgomerie.

Even though he did not play enough events to be included on the Order of Merit and played only four times outside America, world number one Singh was eligible for the award as an honorary member.

Ernie Els was the 2002 and 2003 winner and fellow South African Retief Goosen took it in 2001, but Montgomerie said: “The European Tour player of the year should be European. When we heard it was Vijay everybody was a bit ‘What?’ I think we’re going to have a discussion. You could take the word ‘tour’ out of the title and there could be an overseas award as well.”