Monty, Woods are still pivotal

THERE has been nothing like the Ryder Cup in recent years to bring out the best in Colin Montgomerie.

And there has been nothing like it either to bring mediocrity out of Tiger Woods. So far, at least.

Whether this week in Detroit sees more of the same remains to be seen, but these are the staggering bare statistics as the teams head to Oakland Hills Montgomerie has lost only two of his last 16 games in the event and Woods has won only five of the 15 he has played since he first entered the arena in 1997.

Montgomerie has been the top scorer or joint top scorer in the last three matches. Woods has not even come close.

Montgomerie finished the Americans off at Valderrama seven years ago and set the ball rolling on the final day last time with an opening birdie and five and four demolition of Scott Hoch. He was never behind at any stage in any game.

Woods has been beaten twice on the opening day in the last two matches, a huge psychological boost for Europe. And when he was put out last in the singles at The Belfry he became irrelevant the United States had already lost by the time he came to the final hole.

While they have been peripheral figures in the golf season thus far, they look certain to be pivotal again to the success or failure of the two sides.

Montgomerie at 41, nine years younger than Jay Haas is nevertheless the most experienced player on either side.

Woods, at 28 the youngest man in the American line-up, is nevertheless their number one player yet again, his top spot in the world rankings having been lost last week to Fijian Vijay Singh.

Apart from his debut in 1991, when he played only three of a possible five games, Montgomerie has never been omitted from a single session. And it has never happened to Woods.

These past few months have been testing times for both these world stars.

Montgomerie and his wife of 14 years separated in April and the "quickie" divorce came through in the London High Court last Friday.

The Scot's father will be his principal supporter at Oakland Hills and will be hoping for no repeat of the vicious heckling of his son which drove him off the course in Boston five years ago.

Woods's father has suffered a recurrence of prostate cancer and there have been rumours denied by his management company of a split from Swedish fiancée Elin Nordegren.

And then, of course, there is their golf.

Montgomerie's only victories of the last two seasons have come in the Macau Open and Singapore Masters.

Woods has not won a major since June 2002 and his last stroke play success was last October. Some of his drives, to use his own words, have been "off the planet".

Yet everybody who faces either man this week knows exactly what they are capable of. Although not winning lately, Woods has hardly been off a leaderboard and his one title of the year was the world match play championship. The Ryder Cup, of course, is match play.

Montgomerie is not troubled by his season. He understands better than anybody that this clash of two continents is all about rising to the occasion. And he has repeatedly.

Woods saidsays: "You're a lot more juiced up on the first tee in the Ryder Cup than you are in a normal tour event just because if you get off to a bad start you can lose, whereas in a tournament you can still win.

"Fifty-one weeks of the year you're trying to beat your team-mates' brains in. Now you're together. It's really cool.

"I'm going to go out and compete and everyone on the team knows I am going to give it 100%."

While Montgomerie said: "I've had 14 bloody years of this, but there is still excitement and anticipation, of course there is.

"When you put your team uniform on and go to the airport you feel very honoured indeed. And that should, and never will, change."