Monty: Critics Are Full of It

It’s not easy being Colin Montgomerie. Not lately.

He finished next-to-last Sunday, 82nd in an 83-player field, his worst British Open in the 13 he has played. But it’s just the latest edition of Monty’s woes.

Remember.... In February, he said he might not play in the U.S. again because of the heckling he was getting. In March, his sore back acted up again. In April, he tied for 14th at the Masters. In June, he missed the cut at the U.S. Open.

Then came Muirfield and the Open Championship, where Scotland’s native son never seems to do well. Montgomerie shot a 64 Friday and followed it with an 84 Saturday in the rain and wind. Montgomerie’s 20-shot turnaround tied the British Open record for the biggest change between two rounds, established in 1938.

But after his four-over 75 Sunday, Montgomerie saved his worst for last.

The 39-year-old said he is so stung by criticism from the media that he is curtailing his playing schedule.

Montgomerie said what really disturbed him is that several newspapers reported he did not speak to reporters after Saturday’s round. He said he made himself available but no one wanted to talk to him.

“Tiger Woods was here and you were more interested in him,” Montgomerie said. “I left five minutes after he had finished his round. I was off after him. I left here and no one wanted to speak to me. I didn’t storm off. I didn’t go off in a temper, OK?

“I played in very difficult circumstances yesterday and I’m very disappointed at the way you [media] keep on trying to believe that I have a bad temper on the golf course. I haven’t shown a sign of temper on a golf course for five years. I’m very, very disappointed.

“I’m really hurt by it, I’m really hurt. I’ve pulled out of golf tournaments the next two weeks. I can’t handle it anymore.”

With that, he was gone.

Montgomerie, who says he does not read the newspaper stories about him, had a 7:25 a.m. tee time Sunday, so he must have been up early not reading. Perhaps one of the stories he didn’t read was by Bryan Cooney, who wrote in the Sunday Mail that Montgomerie left the course Saturday without saying a word.

Cooney compared Montgomerie to how Woods handled himself with the media Saturday: “[Woods] stood patiently ... while our man crept out the back door. Class versus crass, wouldn’t you say?”

Montgomerie finished at 13-over 297 and was 20 over par in the three rounds that didn’t include his 64.

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Gary Evans of England shot a 65 Sunday and for a while in the afternoon held a share of the lead. He made two monumental saves on the closing holes: a 35-foot par putt on 17 after losing a ball and hitting into the grandstand, and a par on 18 that left his heart pounding.

He’s an unassuming PGA European Tour player who found it difficult even to breathe during his odyssey on 17 and 18.

After his par-saving putt on 17, he clenched his fist like someone on the verge of winning a major championship when he thought he had no business being there. He turned to the camera and shouted, “That’s for you, Mom!”

Afterward, he said, “I knew she would have been nearly in tears with me walking back down the fairway. It just sprung to mind.”

Evans, who finished one behind the four co-leaders, said that only once has he been more nervous than he was Sunday.

He said it came the first time he picked up a club in a British Open, as an amateur in 1989 at Royal Troon.

“I walked on the first tee and I couldn’t get my left hand on the golf grip,” Evans said.

“I was 19. Troon. That was the most nervous I’ve ever been.

“And that was a practice round.”

Evans looks at himself as a golfer representing Everyman, a guy with average skills in extraordinary circumstances.

“Every kid wants to play the British Open,” he said. “It means so much just to qualify. It’s pretty tough for us more human golfers to get in....

“I mean, these top guys, the Faldos ... how these guys hit these shots, I don’t know. It’s a different world to me. I’m just delighted that it’s over.”

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It’s 41 and counting for Phil Mickelson--how many majors he has played without winning. Mickelson’s 68-76-76-70 added up to a six-over 290 and a tie for 66th, but he says Muirfield wasn’t a bad setup for him.

“I really like how it was in front of the greens, the ball always kicks straight, I thought the fairways were very generous. I just didn’t play well,” he said.

In 10 appearances at the British Open, Mickelson’s best finish was a tie for 11th at St. Andrews in 1990.

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Scott Hoch has never had the British Open high on his schedule; he has played in only five of them. But Sunday, he shot a 66 and was among the leaders late into the final round before finishing tied for eighth, making him low American.

Still, the tournament doesn’t seem to have found a place in Hoch’s heart.

“I thought it was playing pretty easy,” he said of the course. “We don’t have any stupid pin placements like some of the other days.

“Now I can go home and enjoy watching it on TV. I enjoy it more watching on TV than I do playing.”

When will he return? Possibly when the Open returns to St. Andrews in 2005?

“You can forget it,” he said. “Even if I had won here, I’m not going to play it.”

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Saturday’s wild weather was still on the players’ minds Sunday. It helped produce Woods’ worst tournament round as a professional, but not his worst score in a non-tournament round.

“At Royal County Down last year, it was worse,” Woods said about a day in Ireland before last year’s British Open. “I was low round of the group with an 83. It was brutal, blowing about 40, 50 miles an hour, just a brutal day.”

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The biggest casualty among the first-round leaders was David Toms, last year’s PGA champion. Toms was one of three leaders after play Thursday with a four-under 67, struggled to a 75 in the second round, ballooned to an 81 during Saturday’s gale, and wrapped things up with a 75 while playing a speed round with Montgomerie Sunday morning.

He finished at 14-over 298, last in the field.

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Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland didn’t mince words about how he performed at Muirfield, letting the tournament get away Saturday, when he shot a 77.

“This tournament was probably my No. 1 priority at the start of the year,” he said. “I went out yesterday and swung the club terrible. I was pathetic.”

Clarke shot a 69 Sunday and finished at one over.

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The quote of the day is from Nick Faldo, a three-time British Open champion who won at Muirfield in 1992, on his closing round of 71, which tied him for 59th: “Not bad. I only plonked it in the hay a couple of times.”