Montgomerie Chosen To Lead Europe

It was announced yesterday that Colin Montgomerie, or ‘Monty’ as he is known on the circuit, was chosen to lead the European Ryder Cup team for the next contest in 2010. There was some debate around this with the other contenders Jose Maria Olazabal (probably get the nod in 2012) and Sandy Lyle (probably missing out altogether, unfortunately) also being considered. Monty is a veteran of the Ryder Cup having appeared 8 times and holds an impressive record, the highlight being he is undefeated in singles competition. So he obviously knows the ins-and-outs and will immediately have a fair idea which things are working well and which ones could be shaken up a bit. Monty had previously stated that he would have preferred to wait until 2014 when the Cup is held at Gleneagles in his native Scotland, but he will no doubt be relishing the challenge of reclaiming the trophy. What will be of a huge advantage to him is that he will know the course, the Celtic Manor in Wales, fairly well. Another possible benefit is that he will still be playing on the Tour this year and so will get an up-close look at some of the players that will be making up the opposing team.

One of the proposals that Monty has already stated is that he wants to increase the number of captain’s picks or ‘wildcards’ from 2 up to 3. I see this as a very positive move. Not only will it make the qualifying positions more competitive (as it will drop down from 10 automatic placings to 9) thus ensuring players bring out their best game more often, it will also give Monty more options to pick from players that are currently in form with the competition rolls around. Arguably, a similar strategy was one of the reasons that helped the Americans win the trophy last year as they upped their wildcard selections from 2 to 4.

It’s interesting to note that the Americans had previously chosen a new captain as well in Corey Pavin, so there will be two new captains in place once again. The Cup seems to be a bit of a poisoned chalice in that it is an honour to be selected as captain, but the winner seems very reluctant to come back and defend it in case they were to lose and all their previous good work would be forgotten. And well the losing captain doesn’t return for obvious reasons. So even though the next Ryder Cup is still well over 1-and-a-half years away, there is already plenty to talk about. Whether you agree or disagree with the choice you really have no option now but to get behind Monty so he can bring the trophy back home.