In just about every sport, playing the man (or woman) and not the ball is frowned upon, but according to one European Ryder Cup legend, that’s exactly what you have to do to succeed in golf’s greatest team competition.
Talking to bunkered.co.uk, Colin Montgomerie, a veteran of eight Ryder Cups and the only man to hole the winning putt on two occasions, laid bare the difference in mentality when it comes to matchplay.
“It’s a completely different game to strokeplay,” Monty told bunkered, “it’s chalk and cheese. You have one guy to look at, one guy to figure out. And it doesn’t matter what you score, you’ve got to beat him on the day.
“I mean you look at the history books and all you see is 4&3. That 4&3 winner could have shot 80 and lost every other game. Yet he wins his.”
Montgomerie was unbeaten in singles in his eight Ryder Cup appearances, winning six matches and securing two half-points, and he played in the same side as Seve Ballesteros in three of those and with the Spanish legend serving as captain in a fourth. Ballesteros was known for his mind games in matchplay, and Montgomerie was no different, feeling that there were many ways to get the better of your opponent besides simply playing better golf.
“A lot of people play the course in matchplay,” he said, “I never did. I played the man, whoever it may have been, and it worked out okay. But I was one of these people who hated defeat more than I loved winning, and that was my key in the Ryder Cups. I enjoyed that one-on-one situation.
“I learned a lot from the tennis over the years about not showing any emotion, not showing any weakness, only showing your strengths.
“And your caddie is important, too. You know, ‘good shot’, ‘great shot’. I told Alistair [McLean], my caddie, to say that more than he would normally in a strokeplay event, because I think he was off-putting for my American opponent. He’s now fighting two people instead of one, so it was very psychological.”
The Scot made his debut at Kiawah Island in 1991 in what subsequently became known as ‘The War on the Shore’, but the animosity was mostly confined to within the ropes. It was a different story at Brookline in 1999 when the Massachusetts crowd’s hostility towards the Europeans reached new highs and Montgomerie is expecting similar from the New York crowd this year.
The only way to counter that, he claims, is by making a fast start and silencing them.
“It will be difficult, of course it will. It’ll be boisterous. It’ll be game-on in New York, a bit like the Boston situation in 1999,” he recalled.
“I hope it doesn’t go overboard that way, but you have got to silence that American crowd as early as possible, the way Europe did in Rome in 2023, ending the first day leading 6.5-1.5. If they can do that again, it’ll be fantastic.”
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