Monty’s numbers game

COLIN MONTGOMERIE tests himself with his 37 times tables prior to every important round of golf.

He believes it helps him relax and was doing it in 2002 before his name was called and he went into Ryder Cup battle - successfully as it transpired - against Scott Hoch in the crucial opening singles.

He may well use the strategy again before the end of the week but for now he is focusing on one figure, 14½, the number of points Europe need to beat the Americans in the Ryder Cup.

Montgomerie is as enigmatic as they come and yesterday startled everyone by claiming, “personally, this event means absolutely nothing to me. Never has. Never will, actually. Bernhard selected me as a wild card to help the team cause. He felt that I could help his team gain the 14 or 14½ points we require to win. That’s my job this week.

“It doesn’t matter who attains the points. It doesn’t matter who gains five points, three points, two points. What matters is that hopefully it will add up to 14½ at the end of the day.

“The same, I’m sure, can be said for the US team. So, personally, my record in this event is meaningless to me. I’m just glad that I’ve been privileged to be part of three winning teams in my six appearances.”

If Montgomerie is upset by the quick dissolution of his marriage late last week, it certainly isn’t showing here. His teammates, to a man, speak in glowing terms of his influence, on and off the course, and he is clearly enjoying the atmosphere.

However, there’s one door you don’t open right now and that’s the question of the breakdown of his relationship with Eimear.

“I’m here for a team competition this week, so please confine your questions to that. I don’t mean to be rude, but no personal questions will be answered here,” he said.

The Scot may no longer be the player who led the order of merit in Europe for seven straight years. But, Masters champion Phil Mickelson doesn’t doubt his ability: “Nobody was more impressed than I was in ’99 when he took a lot of ribbing and was still able to perform at the highest level. So maybe we would be wise not to piss him off. Maybe we should just downplay it a little and not agitate him so much.”

It’s the kind of compliment Monty clearly relishes and if the Detroit crowd give him a bit of hassle over the three days of the match, you sense it won’t trouble him in the least.

“I don’t think it’s only me that it might upset or rile. If someone has been upset, we take it together as a team and I think we’ll build on that and it will go in our favour,” he said.

“Bernhard has everything planned and everything has been as I thought it would be. We are prepared for any eventuality but I don’t think Brookline will appear again. The world is a different place, a better place since then. Of course, the cheers will be louder if an American putt goes in and that’s obvious. We are playing away from home. I do hope that good golf will be applauded.

“It would not be a competition, if it wasn’t for the other side, and we have to remember that. I know it’s a cliché but let’s hope that golf wins this week.”

Montgomerie is unquestionably one of the wisest and shrewdest men in professional golf and readily accepts that it is a little paradoxical that the European team fancies its prospects while insisting that they must be regarded as outsiders.

“It is a strange thing. At the same time, we have come into these matches most of the time as underdogs.

“We’ll start that way and then hopefully after two hours or so, it might be different.”

Pressed on the subject of who should be favourites, he pointed to the world rankings - containing only one European, Pádraig Harrington, in the top ten, whereas there are four Americans - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love and Stewart Cink - up there.

“Add up those rankings and we are heavily underdogs again.

“The advantage here, of course, is that it’s not a strokeplay event, it’s 18-hole matchplay. We believe we have a better chance over 18 holes than we would normally have in strokeplay.

“But at the same time we are playing away from home and on a US Open/PGA style golf course. We haven’t won either for a very long time. So I think we start as slight underdogs.”

As always, nobody was going to outsmart or out-reason Colin Montgomerie when in this kind of mood. And by the end of the interview, the figure was embedded in the mind. 14½ points - that’s the target!