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THE RYDER CUP

October 1, 2010

Colin Montgomerie

NEWPORT, WALES

GORDON SIMPSON: Colin, it's been a particularly trying, difficult day for many people; the spectators, officials, yourselves as players and captains. Give us a reflection on the day.
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, forgetting the players, we are used to this, these weather delays that we have throughout the year, and we have lovely team rooms and we're spoilt rotten these team rooms and we have very comfortable televisions and chairs. Who I feel very sorry for is the spectators today. They pay a lot of money, and unfortunately the appalling weather conditions out there today made it very tough for them.
I hope they saw some great golf later on in the day. And of course, in the next two days to come.
So I feel sorry, really sorry for the fans out there that have come in the tens of thousands to watch this Ryder Cup, and met with awful weather conditions.
What you see now is a proposed alteration to the playing schedule, and that's out right now. And we were asked in around about four o'clock, quarter to four, for this alteration, and I think it works very well. I think it gives opportunity for everybody to play golf, especially me in my position of where it was very difficult to get my team right down to 12, if not right down to eight, and now I don't have to. I can leave it at 12. Everybody plays. We have 28 matches.
And, well, weather permitting, according to my schedule, which I may have a little ahead of you guys, is that we are going to finish on time on Sunday, which would be an amazing feat to get 28 matches in, considering that we lost seven hours and 18 minutes out there.
So all credit to the organisation for coming up with a plan of attack, and it's great for the fans, great for the fans. Monday finishes are no good in any sport, and it's like going away from the FA Cup Final, and they didn't have a replay, it was a draw, it was awful.
Now at least we can finish this in the allotted time, and it will be tough. It will be tough on us all, because only one person giving advice is me. I'll have approximately fourballs finishing, and I'll have people playing foursomes starting. I'll have people all over the place, as Corey will. But at the same time, I think it mostly benefits the fans, and they are the ones that are supported by this proposed new timetable.
GORDON SIMPSON: You need two more vice captains then. Does this protect the integrity of the matches?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: As long as we play 28 matches, yes, there's eight foursomes, eight fourballs and 12 singles; provided there is that, the integrity of The Ryder Cup remains intact.

Q. A Monday finish is still not off the cards yet?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yes, this is the new proposed timetable. This is the timetable we will go with now. And whether we finish on Sunday on this timetable or not, Monday is still an option; the forecast remains to be poor on Sunday. But it gives us the only option of finishing on Sunday, but of course if it does rain here on Sunday, if we lose another hour of play, well, that's it. We are through to Monday.

Q. One change for the captains is now some guys who may be you guys were not going to play in an alternate-shot, everybody is going to play alternate-shot tomorrow. First part of the question is how do you feel about that, and second part of the question is, why not do four foursomes and four --
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, let's not second guess this proposed timetable. This new timetable is very, very good. Let's not second guess this, for one. This is a brilliant option that we have available to us and let's take it as that.
The foursomes, as you say, alternate-shot, I am very happy with my team of 12. I have more, to be honest with you, I think I have more of a foursomes team than a fourball team, and I am very confident and remain so.

Q. Can you please give us an insight into the importance and the significance and your reaction to Ian Poulter's final putt this evening, what that's meant for you?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Very important. I was there on the 10th green with him, and to hole that putt, you know, it was dark, it was very, very dark. It was well beyond the time we would have been playing stroke-play events. But he felt it was -- he asked me, you know, can I stop.
I said, "Of course you can stop. You don't have to play at you will. You can stop any time." But at the same time, he thought, okay, I'll do this and gave the team momentum if I hole it, and give the team momentum going into the next day, and he's definitely did that. What a roar went up when that putt went in on 1 of Poulter's. It must have been, what, 25 feet I suppose, and fantastic effort. That will give us momentum we need to carry forward into a very, very busy day tomorrow.

Q. Given that everybody is going to be playing every session from here on out, are you at all sorry about the four players that you sat this morning and is there anybody else --
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, I can do nothing about that.

Q. But is there anybody else you might be thinking would want to rest later on --
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: They had the option to rest early on. Well, if they are not fit, they shouldn't be here. And they are fit, so they are here (laughter).

Q. What are the big objections to even playing on Tuesday if we have to?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I believe the Captains Agreement was signed that on 6.43, sunset on Monday, that's the end of The Ryder Cup. We can't go on forever. I believe this is much better to finish on Sunday. I've done playoffs in U.S. Opens and what-have-you on Mondays, and it really is all over believe me. All of the tents come down, there's nobody there, it's very much of a second show, if you like, and I think it's only right for the officials trying to finish this particular Ryder Cup on Sunday and only right that we should at least try.

Q. Completely, I accept that point. But if you have a situation where you have seven matches or whatever, singles matches, still out on the course and you just say, right, so it's all halved, that would seem a stupid way to decide anything?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yeah, well, that's why we are doing this. That's why we are finishing Sunday and not Tuesday.

Q. Just to follow up on that idea, if you get to a point on Sunday evening where ten of the matches are finished and there's two left on singles and The Ryder Cup has been decided, would you rather call those two matches or would you rather take them into Monday?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, if it's the Ryder Cup has been decided, it's been decided.

Q. If it's still in doubt.
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, if it's decided -- if it's in doubt, it's not decided.

Q. I said it was not in doubt?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: You are confusing me.

Q. I'm not.
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, you've -- (laughter) it's a long day.

Q. If the Ryder Cup is over, or once I can't win, but there's still two matches out there --
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well that doesn't matter yet, of course. We are hardly going to go into Monday -- at that stage it will be called a yes, halve. I think the word common sense comes to mind there. (Laughter).

Q. On the advice side, you indicated there might be issues with you only being able to give advice, is there a reason why you wouldn't waive that rule so the assistants could provide advice as well?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yes, that's a rule of golf. They waive the rule of in The Ryder Cup for one person to give advice and only one person to give advice and no more. Because that's the rule of golf, it's the rule. If we break, hate to say, that particular set in doing this for The Ryder Cup, and I totally agree with that, that one person should be giving advice on the golf course. They have a caddie and they have got themselves even in singles play, so they can get on with it themselves.

Q. Can I take you back to the long delay, seven hours, 18 minutes, give us insight into the way your team got through?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Some guys rested. Some guys played these PlayStation games. My team is very young. (Laughter).
And then we have a 3D TV that everyone is so interested in. I think it's amazing myself to watch sports in 3D is quite incredible, especially golf.
So, no, we just tried to pass the time the same way I suppose the American Team did. It was much easier for us to pass the time than it was the spectators. Can you imagine being left on the course with nowhere to go really for seven hours and 18 minutes. All credit to them all for maintaining good humour and good sportsmanship towards the end of the day.

Q. I'd like you to address the state of the match. Whoever wins the first session usually wins The Ryder Cup, do you think this is --
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: No, not at all. I think that, yes, we had a good first sort of hour of play or something, and then that two hours of play there was obviously in the Americans' favour.
But at the same time, there's no match that is anymore than 2-up or 2-down, so everyone is still in the game. There's a very important session tomorrow morning to gain that momentum back again and to take a lead into the six foursomes matches that are due to start mid morning tomorrow.
So all credit to Ian Poulter for holing that putt. But again, all credit to the American Team for coming out and having been 3-1 down to get to a 2 1/2-1 1/2 position ahead. All credit to them for playing well this last hour and a half, but at the same time, no game has been won yet.

Q. Just on that, how personally disappointing is it for you, because Europe clearly had the momentum going, and probably understandably, you do seem a little bit less chipper today than you have been this week?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: No, no, personally I'm not disappointed at all, because as I said earlier on, personally this means nothing to me. This is about my team, and about the Tour. They will be slightly disappointed that they didn't hole the putts that they had to hole this evening and the particularly sort of bad run of about 20 minutes where the Americans were holing putts and of course the Europeans weren't, and that's what The Ryder Cup is all about.
This will ebb and flow for the next two days, and you'll see 20 minutes of good from Europe and 20 minutes of good from the USA. I always said this was going to be close, and I don't think anything less right now. I think it's going to be a very close contest, and it's proving that right now.

Q. Do you think the new format actually favours Europe because some of the American players will be less suited to playing in the foursomes format?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, we were always going to play eight foursomes anyway. What's happening now is it's all going on within one session, really, and we are all playing. I always said it was going to be difficult to leave out people, because as I said, it was difficult enough for me to get to 12, never mind to eight.
So I'm personally quite happy with the proposed timetable. We'll see of course how happy I am with it on Sunday and at the same time, right now I'm very happy with the situation.
GORDON SIMPSON: Colin, thank you very much.

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