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TARGET WORLD CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY WILLIAMS

December 11, 2004

Colin Montgomerie

THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Colin, thank you for joining us for a few minutes. Great finish to your round today.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yes, it was. I have to agree with you there. Very good finish to my round. You finish 3-2-4, it's very good.

I needed it, because everything was sort of bubbling up behind me, and held the lead most of the day. I needed it back again, and it was a good finish. I hit a 4-iron into -- 3-wood, 4-iron into 16 to about eight-foot, and I holed that, and that gave me confidence enough to go for the shot on 17 and holed the putt from about eight-foot again and saved par the last.

But a good birdie of Tiger's. Good comeback of his today because he got off to an awful start for him. So to double the first -- well, the first hole, to miss a shortish putt for par at the first and to double the third and to 3-putt the fourth, pitiful start for him. To be 3-over and finish 2-under was a good effort from him.

Of course, he's not out of it, either. Jay Haas, Jim Furyk, or Tiger, one of the three guys behind me at 11-under, one of those three are going to score low tomorrow. I've got to counteract it by scoring as low, if not lower, myself.

Q. You certainly did that today. You had to outscore Tiger and you did.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I did. The only way I'm going to do that is score lower, that's all I've got. I don't have that much. I have to outscore him by scoring lower, and that's all I can do, and it worked today and hopefully it will continue tomorrow. We'll see.

Q. Is it satisfying for you to see your name at the top of the leaderboard heading into Sunday?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Not particularly. Satisfaction, only one particular player is satisfied to see his name at the top of the leaderboard.

Q. I guess there's a lot of putts on the first few holes and you could have easily finished lower than you did.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, of course we all can. 1, 2, 3 were all missed, unfortunate, but at the same time if you had said on the first tee, "Monty, you were going to score 67," I would have walked home. Well, not home, but to the hotel, anyway. (Laughter.) If you tell me 67 tomorrow -- I'll walk to the airport, yeah, very happy.

Q. How important was it for you to have the lead going into tomorrow?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, it's not particularly, got the lead or whatever, it's just two shots ahead of anyone else. To win now, you know, they have to score three less than I do. So I'm in a fairly good position, really, you know.

I'm playing okay, but that's been proven. If I can hit the fairways tomorrow the way I've been doing the first sort of three days, we'll have a chance, that's all. I still have seven miles to go unfortunately and a lot can happen.

Q. Early in the round, your second shot on No. 2, where does that leave new terms of where you're striking the ball?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: That was a 3-iron, and I wouldn't think I could carry a 3-iron 240 yards. But I strike it well, very well, and it was a little bit left of where I was aiming, and I was about to see it bounce and not sort of jump in the water and it gave me a lot of confidence to go for shots from then on -- you were right, yeah, yeah. I take back what I said yesterday and that's fantastic. (Laughter.) Very good comeback. Very good comeback.

Q. You won at start of the year.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I did.

Q. You had the winning match at the Ryder Cup. Without getting ahead of yourself, what would it mean to win tomorrow?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, I'll talk to you tomorrow about that if that happens.

Q. What kind of achievement is it for Jay Haas to be having the season he's having at his age?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Fantastic. He gives us all confidence. I'm 41 and I think he just turned 50. Tremendous, it gives us all a little bit of hope.

I was sitting there at the breakfast table and I joined Davis Love and I joined Freddie Couples and Jay Haas, and God, I'm over 40 as well now. It's amazing, at the over 40s table and 50 as well. It's amazing, No. 1 in the world is 41 as well. It's amazing how this game we can keep going to grand old ages where in baseball or basketball or football or soccer or tennis or whatever the case may be, you usually finish by about 35. We are very, very fortunate in this game that we can compete through our 40s. Jay Haas has proved that.

Q. Do you think that --

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yes. Now be careful now, because you were going well. Don't blow it now. (Laughter.) See, he's about to blow it. Go on. (Laughter.)

Q. Now, do you think given the 16-man field, the criteria for the majority of the field to get in here, that there should be World Ranking points assigned, as there is the 16-man field at Wentworth?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, you would think there's more opportunity for world points in a stroke-play event than there is in a match-play event. I'm always a bit odd in the match-play event. You go down to La Costa, there's 64 guys, you can score 60 and lose, right, and go home after one day. You'd have beaten the other 62 guys in the field and you can go home. But some guy can score 75 and win and he gets more points than you do, and you shot 60? That's not right. Match-play, I don't think there should be world points for match-play tournaments at all in any situation.

Q. Even Wentworth?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: La Costa or Wentworth. I don't agree with points in match-play tournaments at all. Very, very difficult criteria to figure out. I mean, I can go around La Costa and not break par one round and win every game. What, and I get 100 world points for playing rubbish? No, no. But I can also play fantastic and lose. So stroke-play events should only be counted for world points.

Q. Have you expressed that view to Ken Schoefield?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I've expressed that view before because I think it's fantastic, and I think your questions are great and it's the first time I thought I'd ever say that. There you go. (Laughter.) What? You know it's true, isn't it? Am I saying something wrong here? I think you'll all agree. Well, you're telling me you agree.

End of FastScripts.

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