Monty leads Ryder hopefuls to Royal win

COLIN MONTGOMERIE highlighted the importance of Europe making a winning start to a Ryder Cup year as he led his continent to victory over Asia to reclaim the Royal Trophy.

The Scot, standing in for Seve Ballesteros who continues his recovery from brain surgery, assembled a team consisting of youth and experience for the tournament at Amata Spring Country Club, looking to claim a third victory after losing 10-6 to Asia last year.

The hosts came out on top in the opening day’s foursomes but Europe rallied in the four-balls event to take a one-point lead into yesterday’s singles.

A determined Asia were not going to relinquish the trophy lightly and threatened to force a first-ever play-off at the tournament as they trailed by just one point with one match remaining.

But, after Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee bogeyed the last, Swede Henrik Stenson kept his cool to make par from six feet to halve the match and secure an 8½-7½ win for Europe.

“It was an honour to captain the team,” said Montgomerie. “It is a very important year for European golf and this has been a good start for us and we hope to build on this throughout the year.”

Montgomerie had opted to include himself as a player as well as captaining the team in order to get a closer look at potential picks for his Ryder Cup team.

But the eight-time Order of Merit winner certainly played his part in the victory as he drew upon his vast experience of matchplay golf to keep his cool against Liang Wen-chong yesterday, matching the Chinese number one’s birdie on the last to ensure the game finished all square.

“I had seven potential clients here and we got on great,” he said.

“I think we on the European Tour do as it is like a big family. We travel together, stay in the same hotels together and obviously play together. I just happen to be leading this particularly fantastic group of young talent coming into the Ryder Cup. There are a number of great, talented golfers in Europe and for the first time I really feel that we have a fantastic wealth of talent and we have just witnessed that this week.”