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Colin Montgomerie did not pretend to be “in the official know” on what might or might not happen with the European Tour post-pandemic. He was, though, prepared to go with his instincts, every one of which was telling him that the European Tour should do what it can to stay standing on its own two feet.
“I know it’s going to be difficult, of course it is,” said Montgomerie, 56, who topped the Order of Merit a record eight times and won 31 tournaments during his time playing the tour. “But after so many years of punching above its weight, why would it give up now if it doesn’t absolutely have to? Personally, I’d like to see it carrying on as it is for years to come.”
While everyone is talking of how crucial it is to the European Tour’s survival for the Ryder Cup to go ahead this year by way of allowing Europe to make its usual pot of gold from the next home match, Monty wanted to issue a quick reminder about Ryder Cups past. “The Europeans need to remember what they have done in a Ryder Cup context – and feel appropriately proud.” (For the record, Europe has won 11½ of the past 17 matches including nine of the past 12.)
“I know,” he continued, “that people will start banging on about how we only win because most of the top Europeans are playing virtually full-time in the States, but what these people need to remember is that that hasn’t always been the norm. The ‘Big 5’ of Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle, all of them major winners, not only learned their trade in Europe but they continued to support their home tour. Not enough of today’s players support their tour and it’s a pity. A pity because the repercussions have been dire.”
Montgomerie, who played in Europe full-time until he graduated to the PGA Tour Champions, identified what, to him, has been the greatest downside to the Europeans’ success in the 1980s. Namely, the membership’s belief that they were entitled to prize funds more in keeping with those on offer in America.
Each of the European CEOs in turn – Ken Schofield, George O’Grady and more recently Keith Pelley – delivered on that score, only the Americans were hardly sitting still. They upped their purses at the same time and a comparison between the two sets of statistics from last year showed how the PGA Tour’s total prize fund was still around twice as much as its European equivalent. All of which tells its own story as to why Europeans continue to see the American tour as the best place to be.
Until Colin Montgomerie started playing on the PGA Tour Champions, he never realised how much more of an impact golf makes in America than in Europe.
The Rolex Series, with their €7 million ($7.7 million) purses were supposed to do something to balance the ledger, though that, as has been well documented, has never happened. Here, Monty mentioned England’s Eddie Pepperell, who was one of the first to suggest that top players had hardly hurried across to play in the relevant events.
“It just goes to show,” said Monty, “that the mighty dollar isn’t always the answer.”
As one who lost his mother to cancer when he had only just started out on the professional scene, the Scot is always reminding himself “health is wealth.” At the same time, he names Ballesteros and José María Olazábal as two European Tour men who would have been grossly insulted had anyone suggested that they played for money.
“Seve played because he was passionate about what he did, and Ollie played because he wanted to be like Seve,” Monty said. “Langer and Faldo, meantime, devoted years to being the best golfers they could be for the sake of it.”
The Scot added that he had received the recent Pelley memo, the one telling how things will not be the same again post-coronavirus, with fewer tournaments and less money along with a slimming down of courtesy cars and fancy player lounge facilities.
“You know what, Faldo, Langer and company didn’t begin to expect that kind of pampering in their heyday,” he said. “They jumped on the buses going between the hotels and the course with everyone else, and they even used their own practice balls. Langer would arrive with his own bag of balls and he would take aim on his caddie, Peter Coleman, who would either get hit or catch them, such was Langer’s accuracy.
“From what I’m hearing,” he went on, “today’s players ‘get’ what Pelley is saying. As applies to people in virtually every other walk of life, things won’t be the same for a long time. It will be no different for the US PGA Tour, too, though they’re likely to bounce back sooner. For myself, I’m not expecting the Champions tour to begin for a bit and that’s so strange when I’ve been used to teeing up in a tournament more weeks than not. Now, all I can do is hit balls into a net.”
Until Monty started playing on the PGA Tour Champions, he never realised how much more of an impact golf makes in America than in Europe. “I know this might sound faintly ridiculous but I get recognised when I’m out and about over there and that’s for playing as a senior. That side of things has all been so new to me, because when you’re in Europe you’re often visiting countries where the general population barely know the first thing about golf, let alone golfers.”
Some of Monty’s other thoughts centred around the European Tour’s relationships with spectators. “We mustn’t forget their role in all this,” he said. “Spectators are amateurs who come along to tournaments to pick up a few tips and maybe follow the players they think might make it into the next Ryder Cup side. Most of them don’t give the proverbial damn about how much money the players are making or whether or not they’ve got a fleet of fast cars.
“To sign off with the European-based players,” he said. “They’re not going to start saying that they don’t want to play in this tournament or that because the prize money has gone down. Of course, they will play. When the reset button is pressed, they’ll just have to do what talented golfers have always done – and that’s adapt.”
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