Montgomerie works every angle he can: Local Knowledge: Golf Digest

Montgomerie works every angle he can

Sunday, October 3, 2010

NEWPORT, Wales -- The more this Ryder Cup progresses, the more it's become apparent that Colin Montgomerie has left little to chance as European captain.

On Saturday, Montgomerie described the setup of his team room, where players will walk in to pictures and video highlights of triumphant moments in their career. He lamented the performance of the Celtic Manor scoreboards, which he felt were showing too much action and not enough scores -- the thinking being that his team would feed off of the presence of blue flags draped across them.

"I've asked them to fix that," Montgomerie said.

Then came Sunday morning, when the European captain taped a note above the door of his team's locker room, in the spirit of Notre Dame's famed sign, "Play Like A Champion Today".

"Team USA are going to come out fast," Montgomerie's note said. "Make sure we come out faster."

"Putting us under pressure is probably the wrong way to put it," said Graeme McDowell, who alongside Rory McIlroy, won a point for the Europeans in their foursomes match against Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan. "He's been asking us to go out and do a job for him."

There's a lot of golf left before we determine if Montgomerie has succeeded at his job. But if he doesn't, it doesn't seem like it's going to be because of a lack of trying.

-- Sam Weinman