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BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 6, 2005

Colin Montgomerie

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

Q. Looking forward to the week?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I am, I always look forward to here, somewhere I've won before and I had a decent finish at the end of the week even though I backed into a little bit but you sometimes have to accept that because sometimes it works for and sometimes it doesn't. But it was nice for me to get back to 40th in the world now and I have only 15 to go now before I have succeeded.

Q. That was a big jump up wasn't it?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yes, a big leap, I don't really understand it but I suppose Retief played and there was Harrington and Clarke and a few top players playing and this will be more points here with Ernie and Mickleson adding to that list I suppose so this is a super week for points so that is good. I'm 40th and I have 15 to go before I will be happy with 25th at the end of the year.

Q. What happens when you get to 25?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well I stop playing don't I! Call it a day! If I win here, I'll be 25th and I'll stop, yes! (Laughter)

Q. Was that your target for these two weeks?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, no, not really, my main target is to keep improving, getting more up the rankings really.

Q. You must be happy with how you played last week given the trouble a lot of people had?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, yes, I was, my five under at the weekend was better than anyone who made the cut and that is encouraging and I am looking ahead to here as I said and I am looking forward to jumping up the rankings again. I was way off the mark in 83rd place and now I have halved that already and I want to keep going to see how far I can get back again. It is actually very interesting and it is quite fun really to see how far I can get back up again. It is interesting and fun.

Q. Do you think you are ahead of schedule in getting back up the rankings?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: About where I thought I'd be.

Q. How high do you think you can go?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I'd like to think I can get back in the top ten but I'd like to be in the top 25 by the end of the year, that's my goal, right, and then next year I'd like to try and really work on my game and work out and try and get into the top ten, I'd like to think I can. That would be a huge effort, a success.

Q. 25th at the end of the year seems quite a conservative effort?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: No not really, it is difficult. If it was that easy we'd all be there you know, it is not easy and very difficult to sustain playing as much as I do for one and then to have to keep making top tens and picking up points here and there, and of course the higher you get the harder it gets. It is difficult but it is exciting and I am looking forward to the challenge.

Q. You are playing a lot of tournaments?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yes well I have nothing else to do really! I might as well play! I have my kids on holiday in two weeks time and I am looking forward to that but until that stage I am doing my job really. It is difficult to miss the US Open, the French, the K Club, here, the Open and the Deutsche Bank, it is very difficult to miss those events for someone who has not much else to do.

Q. And you couldn't have done that run with your back the way it was two years ago?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: No, not a chance so that is encouraging as well because physically I am a lot better than I was a couple of years ago. I have no trouble with it now, none at all. I still exercise and that is probably why. But there is no worries with it now at all.

Q. What do you need to do now to get back into the top ten?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I have to win, I have to start winning.

Q. What is stopping you winning?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Christ, what is stopping me winning? I hate to say it, but somebody beating me. But at the same time I have to go out there and the confidence gained by going out there and finishing second in the European Open, I would like to be in a position more often where that sort of thing happens. It is much easier for that to happen rather than me lead all four days and win. Whether I am ready to win right now I am not sure, I like to think I am but I don't know, I haven't tested that out yet. When I finished that tournament I was sixth or something and then half an hour later I was second, that is the best way to do it, in the clubhouse, it is the easiest way to do it anyway. I would like to be leading and then go through and then it would prove to myself that I was back to where I wanted to be.

Q. How does this new, laid-back Monty manifest itself on the golf course?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I think I am calmer. However I was upset I missed a putt there at the weekend and it was nice that I get upset because it means I care. I have got to care or else I'd be back in 100th place, you have got to care. But I am more relaxed and I think people around me say that and I look forward to it now. If this doesn't work, I look forward to the Open and if that doesn't work, I look forward to the Deutsche Bank and we go on from there, it is exciting.

Q. Five years ago if it hadn't worked, what would your reaction have been?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well -- oh God! Bloody hell! Etc, etc. I don't know what happened five years ago here, didn't I win. Oh no that was 1999, six years ago.

Q. You always used to say you were here to win and now you're not saying that?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: No I'm not saying that, I'm not saying I'm here to win. I'd like to win but you're right, I used to say that. I'm not saying I'd like to be in the top ten here, top ten in the world is what I mean and I feel I have the talent for that. I have just got to prove it to myself. But it would be great to win again here in Europe. I have had a few top tens this year and I would like to put one of them into a win.

Q. There must have been times last year when you thought you'd never be in this position again?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Very much so. With my back in such a state and my golf game not great and emotionally not fantastic, I felt I might not be talking to you this way about coming off a second place in Ireland and thinking about winning here. Thinking about.

Q. Anything special planned with the kids?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: No I am just taking them up into Scotland and have some fun and a bunch of laughs. But nothing special and it is nice for them and it is nice for me. It is good and I am looking forward to it.

End of FastScripts.

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