Monty draws on Ryder Cup experience

Colin Montgomerie recalled what happened to him eight years ago before deciding on an unchanged line-up for the second day of the Seve Trophy at The Wynyard near Middlesbrough, England – even though Britain and Ireland were 4-1 down overnight.

In the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer lost their opening game against Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara.

“We were four down playing 11 and Seve (captain Seve Ballesteros) came up to us and said: ‘What do you think about splitting up this afternoon?’,” remembered the Scot.

“We both said to him: ‘No way – you’re not going to split us up. We will win this afternoon’.” They faced Woods and O’Meara again and won five and three.

Now a captain himself and facing Continental Europe, Montgomerie has kept together his five pairs even though he and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell were the only winners yesterday.

That meant Ian Poulter and Nick Dougherty, Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd, David Howell and Paul Casey and also Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley get another chance together.

They do so, however, only after Montgomerie let it be known that he expects better.

“I am not very happy,” he said after a behind-closed-doors team meeting. “There were certain things going on that will remain between ourselves. I said to them: ‘Come on – this is not quite good enough’.

“I want to make a game of this and we have to play better, as simple as that. They were listening and they are fired up now.

“I think I am the first captain who has gone 4-1 down and not switched a thing. I felt very confident in my pairings before the start and I feel the same way.”

Not surprisingly, opposite number Jose Maria Olazabal, who has taken over the Continental Europe captaincy from Ballesteros, keeps his five pairs together as well.

But he has given them a warning not to get complacent in any way.

“Obviously it was a great day for us – wonderful,” he commented. “But we all know our opponents are not a piece of cake. I am sure Monty is going too give them a nice talking to and this is not over.”

And he recalled something from his past as well.

“In the qualifying for the 1985 British amateur (a year after he beat Montgomerie in the final) I shot 68-86.”

To which Montgomerie added his own experience in the Open at Muirfield three years ago – 64 in the second round, 84 the following day.

The seven-time European number one will certainly be looking for an improvement in the play of Dodd and Casey. The scoreboard did not show them registering a single birdie yesterday.

With one hole of the day’s play to go there was a chance of it being 3-2, but Jean-Francois Remesy sank a nine-foot birdie putt and Harrington missed from seven.

“That made a big difference,” added Olazabal.