"High level of confidence" in Monty camp - Sky Sports News
Colin Montgomerie, who led Europe to victory at Celtic Manor in 2010, would be open to reprising his role as Ryder Cup captain. Photograph by Tom Jenkins via the Guardian.co.ukSky Sports News is reporting that Colin Montgomerie’s camp is confident he will get the nod tomorrow:
Sky Sports News golf reporter James Haddock revealed on Monday morning that a source very close to the Montgomerie camp is saying they have “an extremely high level of confidence that the vote is going to go Colin Montgomerie’s way.”
Haddock, out on the range ahead of this week’s Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, added: “There’s a lot of conversations going on here at the moment, some of them getting slightly heated.
“Thomas Bjorn I saw having a pretty full on, heated discussion with someone and it just shows that there’s a lot of conversations happening with the key players involved in making this decision.”…
Haddock, after speaking to some of the 15-man committee, said: “Some have said to me they’ve already made their minds up, they won’t say who, others I think may well be prepared to be swayed by discussions tomorrow night.
“But the indications from the Sky source right now is that it looks like Colin Montgomerie may well be in the box seat to be the next Ryder Cup captain.
“It would be a huge shock for pretty much everyone involved in golf really.”
Clarke, who was touted by some of his colleagues such as Lee Westwood as the ideal man for the job, took a step back in the last couple of days when saying he still had hopes of qualifying for Gleneagles as a player.
That appeared to put the ball strongly in McGinley’s court with Sky Bet slashing the Dubliner to just 1/5 to get the captain’s job.
However, the market has now been pulled with the shock revelations about Monty.
Speaking to the Press Association’s Mark Garrod before leaving the Volvo Golf Champions, the Scot said he was prepared to come back as Ryder Cup captain even though he considers elements of the job as “an invasion of privacy”.
“It’s a lot of time, a lot of pressure on family and you as a individual. The scrutiny when it’s at home is a lot more. It’s an invasion of your privacy and life.”
In 2010 Montgomerie won a gagging order to stop publication of a story about his private life.
If he gets the job, those stories are likely to re-emerge.
At the 2010 US PGA championship he addressed the rumours about his private life, telling reporters:
“I know a lot of you are having a lot of fun right now at my expense. I apologise for this, that you have to bring this up, but at the same time no further comments from myself on that matter.”