The Monty Story
from ’87 to ’07

When a chubby-faced young Scot, instantly distinguishable by his shock of wiry straw-white hair, teed up as a professional for the first time in the European Masters in 1987, nobody could have predicted the impact he would go on to have.

However, 20 years, eight Order of Merits, eight Ryder Cups, 30 titles, 1,580-odd competitive rounds and almost £15million later, Colin Montgomerie OBE can lay claim to being Scotland’s finest ever golfer.

Even now, weeks short of his 44th birthday, Monty is still among the favourites in almost every event he plays, no mean feat considering the number of young whipper-snapppers on Tour, most of whom would give their right arm and play one-handed if offered a fraction of the big man’s success in return.

Not that Monty wasn’t once a starry-eyed youngster himself. After a successful amateur career – the high point being his Scottish Amateur Championship success at Nairn in 1987 – Monty turned pro months later and he vividly recalls those early days.“It was very different,” he remembers. “I came from the amateur game where I was a big fish in a small pond and, suddenly, I was a very small fish in a very large pond.”

Monty and his father, James, agreed he’d give pro life a two-year probationary run and thus he embarked upon his new career high in the Swiss mountains.

However, no sooner had the 24-year-old teed off, he was brought crashing back down to earth with a great bump as a result of a series of unfortunate events that would make Lemony Snicket wince.

Whilst he made it to Switzerland, his clubs and luggage didn’t. And when the tournament got underway, Monty struggled to adapt his game to suit the unnatural alpine conditions where, on average, golf balls travel an extra 10% through the light air.

The sum and substance? Rounds of 77 and 71 conspired to make him miss his first cut.Nonetheless, he soon found his feet and, before Hogmanay ’87 became New Year’s Day ‘88, he’d won nearly £2,000.

Those early experiences set him up nicely for his first full season on the European Tour.
With a full card at his disposal for coming through Q-School, Monty made the cut in 15 of his 22 events and won £60,095. Subsequently, he was named European Tour ‘Rookie of the Year’.

Even better followed in 1989 when, in his penultimate event of the season, the Portuguese Open, he won his first European Tour title. By 11 shots. As you might expect, he remembers it fondly.

“I’ll never forget the thrill of ringing home that evening,” he says, “and how my father and I agreed I was probably in the right job after all.”
Whilst 1990 came and went without further silverware, Monty missed just six cuts from 30 starts, posting eight top-tens in the process.

And, in 1991, after finishing second in the Volvo PGA and Irish Open, he won the Scandinavian Masters by a single shot from Seve Ballesteros.
Months later, the pair were Ryder Cup teammates at Kiawah Island.