	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

JOHNNIE WALKER CHAMPIONSHIP AT GLENEAGLES

August 29, 2008

Colin Montgomerie

GLENEAGLES, SCOTLAND

Q. How does it feel to come up with a good score when really nothing else would do?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yes, good question. Not bad really. 70 is okay round here, three under, so that is okay. It proves that I made the right decision in not going to Holland and practicing here and getting into a position here where, hopefully, I can do well over the weekend.

Q. How much of that performance is down to practice or pure dogged determination?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well I am determined, I think everyone knows that but there was some technical issues which were wrong and I've sorted them out. I have hit the ball well actually and I was disappointed to finish only three under. I was four under for the day and hit great iron shots at six and seven and didn't take advantage and then three putted the eighth and disappointed not to get a birdie at the ninth so actually 70 is good even though I was disappointed with the finish.

Q. With the greens poor, has it become a ball striker's week and therefore a Monty week?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well it is one thing hitting the ball close, it is another thing holing the putt and a lot of the good putters aren't being able to take advantage of that with the condition of the greens this week so possibly you're right it that it is becoming more of an advantage being able to hit the greens in regulation.

Q. Do you like Nick Faldo?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: No no, that is not the question. The question is does Nick Faldo like me.

Q. You are giving him a headache now though?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: That's all right, he can cope. Nick Faldo knows exactly what I can bring to the Ryder Cup on and off the course, I don't have to speak about that any more than I have. We have played together so often in that tournament that I know what he is capable of and vice versa and it is his decision. He has a very difficult decision I must admit, it is not clear cut as it possibly has been over the previous years and he has a very difficult decision ahead of him. But knowing him as I do, the record he has and who he is, he will make the right one.

Q. You showed a lot of bounceback-ability after three early bogeys yesterday.
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Sure I was two over early yesterday which was not very good and I got it back to three under through the round today which is a good stretch of holes because it is not easy as I said. It is very difficult to convert with the greens the way they are so it is becoming a ball strikers tournament. I played with Soren Hansen today who played extremely well and hit the ball very well and is one of the favourites over the weekend.

Q. How much more pressure do you feel this week to perform compared with other weeks?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I had to show form to have any opportunity as I said on Wednesday to you and I have to keep performing over the weekend, hit the greens in regulation and hole the odd putt if possible.

Q. How were the greens this morning?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Not great.

Q. The technical issue, what have you sorted out and with whom?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Myself. I have been working with Pete Cowen and on and off with Denis Pugh but last week was myself. I know an awful lot about my own swing and managed to work things out that weren't going so well in America those two weeks and came out and was happy with the way I was playing. There are various things I was doing, just the way the ball was being attacked upon. The pressure on the ball wasn't there, it is now.

Q. You said you were confident Nick would make the right decision, so that means you must be confident you will get the pick?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: No I never said that.

Q. Isn't that the right decision then?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I am confident he will make the right decision whether that is me or somebody else, that is up to him.

Q. Do you feel you need to win this weekend?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Not necessarily no. I don't think that necessarily proves that you are on form or not. A good solid performance proves that a player is on form. Nowadays in Europe if you finish from tenth up you are performing quite well because it is tough to win and you have to be fortunate at the right times to win. Never in any of my 41 victories have I stood up and said I was unlucky, ever. So you have to have fortune at the right time and during certain holes and certain rounds. But not necessarily having to win, no.

Q. So if you perform solidly and don't get picked, how gutting would that be?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Not at all. Nick will have made the right decision. If I win, I have a sporting chance.

Q. You might not have had a chance to see this this morning but the man in pink in America has suggested he is unhappy about your comment about him having a hotline to Faldo and also that you have more to concern yourself with this week?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Did he really. Oh well it is nice to have eh, nice to be told what to do by one so young and one so inexperienced.

Q. I presume you wish him well in America this week?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Can you honestly believe he said that? The only reason that we said a hotline to Nick Faldo is because he is the only one saying it. No-one else is. He did say he has spoken to Nick. Has anyone else said that? No. Right then. It is Nick Faldo's decision. Self praise is no praise.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297