It doesn’t take much to ruffle the feathers of good old Colin Montgomerie. The mere hint, for instance, of a photographer gently changing the spool of his camera some 270 yards away used to generate the kind of withering glower that could melt a tank.
Yesterday, Monty’s name cropped up in the conversation as Tiger Woods performed his state of the nation address ahead of the 152nd Open here at Royal Troon. Forget melting a tank, the scornful stare Woods conjured could’ve liquified Montgomerie too.
So what, pray tell, has oor Colin got to do with all of this? Well, over the last year or so, the great Scot has suggested in various outlets that Woods should’ve brought the curtain down on his major career during that emotional, cap-doffing meander over the Swilcan Bridge at the 2022 Open in St Andrews.
Montgomerie mentioned it again in an interview the other week and, in the grand traditions of lobbing a grenade into affairs to spark a high-profile reaction during The Open build-up, Tiger was asked for his own views on Monty’s musings. Pesky reporters, eh?
“Well, as a past champion, I’m exempt until I’m 60, Colin’s not,” said Woods as he delivered a cutting retort that could’ve been made with a scalpel. “He’s not a past champion. So, he doesn’t get the opportunity to make that decision. I do.”
Ouch. Not long after Tiger and the media masses had vacated the interview room, Montgomerie himself took to social media to offer up his own response.
“If golf writers want my thoughts on Tiger please ask me direct, rather than taking a quote from an interview out of context,” he wrote. “Wishing Tiger an enjoyable and successful week.” What were we saying about ruffled feathers again?
Like everything these days, this will have blown over by the time you actually read this in newsprint. Life moves along briskly in this game.
For Woods, time continues its unrelenting march. Since missing the cut in that 2022 Open over the Old Course, Woods has played in just seven events.
With a creaking frame held together by various rods, pins, bolts and joists, it’s been a sair auld fecht for Woods. In many ways, Montgomerie has a point. You wouldn’t want to see the 15-time major winner becoming a hirpling ceremonial figure.
Some would argue he already is. He’s missed the cut in his last two appearances this year, at the US Open and the US PGA, and was dead last of those who made the cut at April’s Masters.
Woods, of course, has earned the right to end his major career on his terms. With his usual dogged defiance, he ain’t ready to call it quits yet.
“I've been training a lot better,” said Woods when asked what has improved since his last competitive outing. “We've been busting it pretty hard in the gym, which has been good.
"My body's been feeling better to be able to do such things, and that translates into being able to hit the ball better. I'll play as long as I can play, and I feel like I can still win the event.”
It's been 20 years since Woods was last at Royal Troon for an Open. He missed the 2016 edition because he was recovering from back surgery and returns this week with a fair bit on his plate.
The 48-year-old decided against taking on the captaincy of the US Ryder Cup team for the 2025 tussle in New York while his role in the on-going discussions involving the PGA Tour the Saudi Public Investment Fund has brought a new layer of wearisome bureaucracy to his daily routine.
“I’m on so many different subcommittees that it just takes so much time in the day, I’m always on calls,” he said. “I told Seth (Waugh, the PGA of America’s chief executive) that I just didn’t feel like I could do the (captain’s) job properly. I couldn’t devote the time. I barely had enough time to do what I’m doing right now.
“And add in the TGL (his tech-infused golf league) which starts next year, as well as the Ryder Cup. With our negotiations with the PIF going on at exactly the same time, there are only so many hours in the day.
“I just didn’t feel like I would be doing the captaincy or the players in Team USA justice if I was the captain with everything that I have to do.”
Can Woods do himself justice over the wonderful, rigorous Royal Troon links this week? Time, as always, will tell but the three-time Open champion is enjoying the early parrying and jousting with its abundant challenges as his build up intensifies.
He’s also doing some tinkers and tweaks to the tools of his trade as he prepares to launch them into battle.
“I’m monkeying around with the bounce on my 60 (degree wedge),” he added, as he a gave a little insight into his armoury. “I’ve got a couple of 60s I’m experimenting with right now, one with a little bit less bounce for the chipping areas.
“I also bent my 3-iron yesterday one degree stronger just to be able to hit it off the deck and get that thing down and flighted and running. And I added lead tape to my putter just because the greens are so slow.”
In a wide-ranging chinwag, Woods had given us, well, the full Monty.
