Easy Ryder for Monty

Sam Torrance tonight admitted he may have to use Colin Montgomerie sparingly in next month’s Ryder Cup after the Scot suffered a recurrence of his back problems.

The seven-time European number one quit the NEC World Championship after nine holes of his second round in Seattle yesterday, citing the back injury that has plagued him since the start of the year.

And with the match with the Americans at The Belfry just over a month away, Torrance conceded a player he has described as his “rock” may not be fit to play in all five sets of matches, a potential total of 90 holes in three days.

“I’ve not had a chance to speak to him yet but hopefully he is fine,” said Torrance after moving into fourth place after the third round of the Scottish PGA Championship at Gleneagles.

“It’s been troubling him most of the year but he has some time now that the majors are finished. I think he will have a couple of weeks off.

“It might be a bit much for him to play in every series but I had already taken that into consideration. I might not push him.”

Since his debut in 1991 Montgomerie has never been asked to sit out a session and despite terrible heckling in Boston three years ago gave one of the best performances of his whole career.

However the 39-year-old has gone over a year since winning now and has been seriously concerned about the state of his back.

Montgomerie was four over par and joint 66th of the 78 players at the time he decided to pull out at Sahalee Country Club.

“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “It’s a real pity because I was looking forward to coming here and competing.

“My back has been causing problems all week and if you compete with others who are physically fit then there is no point carrying on.

“I’m now in the process of trying to get a flight home and I will take stock of the situation after that.”

Montgomerie scratched from the English Open at the Forest of Arden in June last year when the trouble first flared and then quit the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth at the start of this season.

The problem returned with a vengeance at the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Germany in May and he produced a Herculean effort there to take Tiger Woods to a play-off before losing.

He was also runner-up in the Volvo PGA championship and fourth in the British Masters the following two weeks while receiving intensive treatment.

Assured he did not need surgery, he embarked on a new fitness and diet regime. But that is a long-term thing and the Ryder Cup is rapidly approaching.

Luton’s Ian Poulter is on standby for the 10 automatic qualifiers in Europe’s side.

If either Sergio Garcia or Jesper Parnevik became injured Torrance can choose who to replace them with because they were his wild-card picks.