Monty and the Kid

As Colin Montgomery and Rory McIlroy prepare to play the first two rounds of the Irish Open together, much of the press is more interested in Monty discussing his Captaincy of the Ryder Cup team which will face Cory Pavin’s US Squad in Wales in September. Yesterday’s press conference left me wondering how their game will go today as the two have differing views on the Ryder Cup.

I think Rory McILroy is the closest. “It’s not a huge goal of mine” said the youngstar. “It’s an exhibition at the end of the day. In the big scheme of things it’s not that important an event for me”. He will learn that it is a huge exhibition, the major corporate cash cow of two PGAs.

Monty added “It is not an exhibition and never will be”. “It’s a very unique special event and much more nerve-wracking than a major”. Monty does not want, however, to be seen as being at loggerheads with a player he has described as “one of Europe’s best young talents for many a year”.

He made a request to reporters
“Please don’t say Monty and Rory are having a war here, I haven’t said that”. Guess what most of the papers opened coverage of the Irish Open with? The differing views of course, even bumped cricket.

The Irish Open starts today on one of the world’s top 100 courses, County Louth, also known as Baltray. Although golf was played on the site for more than a hundred years, the course being played was designed and built in 1938 by Tom Simpson and Molly Gourlay (yes a woman helped, as Alice Dye did at TPC Sawgrass). Recently Tom Mackenzie did the inevitable, lengthened the course with new tees, to challenge the modern tour players. The course has less than 60 bunkers but they must be respected and not ignored, as all bunkers over here should be. Our Torrance Course which opens in July has 63 serious bunkers (some courses have over 120).