Colin Montgomerie's Ryder Cup bid hangs by a thread

Aug 10 2008 Euan Mclean At Oakland Hills

THE irony wasn't lost on Colin Montgomerie that his last putt on Friday night was a carbon copy of the one he drained on the same green to win the 2004 Ryder Cup for Europe.

But a lot more than the severity of this tough Oakland Hills golf course has changed in the last four years - and the hero from back then now finds his latest Ryder Cup bid hanging by a thread.

Monty needed to roll back the years at this week's US PGA to have a realistic chance of forcing his way into Nick Faldo's plans for next month's showdown with the USA.

And where better to kickstart his challenge than the place where he underlined his iconic status as Europe's talisman with that winning putt?

Instead, this time Monty stood on that green five feet away from making history for all the WRONG reasons - as a miss would have sealed his worst ever round in a major.

That he sunk it to only equal his lifetime worst of 84 - first scored in the gales of the 2002 Open at Muirfield - offered scant consolation. The big Scot, 45, cut a shellshocked figure as he came over to the media who had gathered in their droves to watch the reaction of a guy renowned for storming off in a strop for 10 shots less than Friday's calamity.

Yet to his credit Monty stopped and even stayed when one unwitting American hack offered a sympathetic smile that was only ever going to be misconstrued by the Scot.

"Make that your last OK?" Over sensitive, yes, but Monty is right. This is no laughing matter now. The stats are deadly serious.

By tomorrow morning he will have plummeted further down the world rankings from his current standing of 85th and his place in the Ryder Cup points list could also slip from 16th.

Montgomerie's combined score of 20 over par saw him finish almost dead last for the second week in a row, having also flopped at the WGC event in Ohio.

Even if he wins his next tournament, the Johnnie Walker at Gleneagles, the s300,000 cheque won't propel him into an automatic Ryder Cup place.

And it will take nothing less than victory in front of his home crowd to convince Faldo that Montgomerie is worthy of a wild card pick. So it seems his last chance went with the final major of the season and after eight Ryder Cups in a row, Europe will go into battle without their lucky charm.

Not that Montgomerie is giving up hope just yet, judging by his response to the unfortunate use of past tense when one reporter commented that a lot of people wanted him to make it.

He said: "So I'm not on the team, am I? Sorry, I didn't realise you looked like Nick Faldo, I apologise. I'm sorry.

"That (the Ryder Cup) is furthest from my mind right now. Just let me get home this evening and I'll think about it later.

"I wasn't thinking about it out there. I was only thinking about trying to play as well as I could.

"I got off to a bad start and kept it going. When you get on a bogey run here it's difficult to get off it because the course is very severe.

"It's set up as difficult as any course I've played. And it's nothing like the place Europe did so well at four years ago - although I holed the same putt as I did on the 18th. That was nice on the last green.

"There weren't many great scores here during the Ryder Cup either. It was more of a match play situation and we enjoyed the setup more.

"But they have added maybe 500 yards to the setup and with more severe conditions. The severity added to my score but I wasn't playing well.

"That was the most difficult day since my poor score at Muirfield in 2002 but the weather conditions added to that one. Unfortunately, this time it was a reasonably good day.

"However, I wasn't conscious of that record when I was playing the 18th. I wasn't conscious of much really.

"But there you go. It's one of these things and you go away to regroup.

"You come back again and try your best next time."

Sadly, even Monty's best at Gleneagles might not be enough to win him a return to the Ryder Cup stage that has come to mean so much to him.