Monty and Campbell ready for battle royal

MONTY or Cambo? That’s the big issue here as the Scot and the Kiwi go head-to-head in pursuit of the European Tour order of merit.

Whereas Colin Montgomerie led the money list for seven successive years in the 1990s, Micheal Campbell has yet to do so. But he has captured something that Monty cherishes, a major championship, this year’s US Open, and this very situation lent some spice to their press conferences last night.

Campbell claimed he’d prefer one major to any number of order of merits. Monty retorted by reminding us of the trophy he received from the European Tour in 2000 and which carried the inscription: “A record that forever will remain unique.”

Both, of course, were speaking from positions of strength and no matter what happens over the next four days, the mutual respect between them will, if anything, be appreciably strengthened.

As is invariably the case in such situations, the mathematics are complicated. Montgomerie leads Campbell by 153,487 points so the New Zealander must finish in the top five this week, otherwise it’s the Scot’s title no matter what. Other permutations: A), if Campbell wins the Volvo Masters, he also wins the order of merit title. B), if Campbell is 2nd, Montgomerie would have to win or tie for 2nd. C), If Campbell is 3rd, Montgomerie must be 8th or better. D), If Campbell is 4th, Montgomerie must come 22nd or better. E), if Campbell is 5th, Montgomerie must be 54th (of 55) or better.

“Monty has a good lead but he is beatable if I play my best golf,” Campbell insisted. “I’ve just had two weeks off in Australia recharging the batteries. It was all about being a father and a husband. But now the fire is back in my belly and I’m ready to play. I’m really looking forward to and excited about the next four days. It’s wonderful what Monty has achieved in getting to this point after coming through a lot of personal misfortune. I’m sure he will crack a major some day and I’m sure he would swap all of his seven order of merit titles for one major. I know I would. I will shake his hand on the first tee and shake his hand on the 18th green and we’ll walk off the course as friends. He and I are similar as players, not extra long off the tee but straight. We’ve both had a great year. I’ll not look at any figures, I’ll go out and play my best.”

Montgomerie was as pragmatic as ever about the challenge awaiting him. He quickly agreed that he was in a position of considerable strength going into the tournament and reasoned: “I’ll be giving it everything. That’s all I can do. I’ve no control over the others but I have control over myself. My one big objective this week is to win. If I do so, I will be in the Ryder Cup team, there are also a lot of world ranking points at stake and everything else will fall into place.”

Montgomerie recalls a four foot putt he holed on the 9th green at The K-Club in July to make the Smurfit European Open cut on the limit mark as “a major turning point in my year. I backed into second on the Sunday and that gave me confidence to go forward and progress. I will celebrate this year no matter what happens this week although not to the same scale as Freddie Flintoff.”

And it is to be ardently hoped that if Monty does win the order of merit, it is by more than the 35,000 points he picked up in the Indonesian Open when he was found guilty of a breach of the rules after the tournament had ended. That would indeed by a Pyrrhic victory if ever there was one!