World Cup of Golf

Jock MacVicar, the doyen of Scottish golf writers, reflects on a historic World Cup win at It came very late in the year, but not too late to transform a season that, for Scottish golf, had been ebbing away into a slumbering state of mediocrity.

Colin Montgomerie, if a little shakily, won the European Open at The K Club in June, and, in front of an enthusiastic gallery at Gleneagles in early September, Marc Warren claimed the Johnnie Walker Championship in a sudden-death play-off against Simon Wakefield.

However, there was little evidence to suggest that the same two players would triumphantly unfurl the Saltire over the first Omega Mission Hills World Cup to be played at Shenzen in China.

The weeks leading up to the late November date in the most populous country on the planet were far from encouraging. Monty had fallen outside the top 50 in the world, Alastair Forsyth - not Warren - was the next Scot in the rankings in 136th place, and, adding to the feeling of depression, the two most promising male golfers in the country, Lloyd Saltman and Richie Ramsay, had failed to gain cards at the European Tour School in Spain.

Quite frankly, there were few, if any, hints from Montgomerie and Warren that World Cup history
was about to be made in China.

By winning in Ireland in June, Monty surpassed Nick Faldo’s record of 30 wins on the European Tour but, in the weeks that followed, he missed the cut in the Alfred Dunhill Links, shot a closing 79 in the Volvo Masters at Valderrama and failed to reach the third round of the HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

Warren was no better. Having been picked as a wild card by Faldo for the Seve Trophy, he did not stride on from his Johnnie Walker victory, missing the cut in his very next event, stumbling once more at the HSBC Champions, and tying 69th in the UBS Hong Kong Open.
In the build-up to the World Cup, most of the media’s attention surrounded England's Justin Rose and Ian Poulter, no great surprise, I suppose, as the nationals down south see no other when Justin is in the field. On this occasion, however, it was justified as the persistent and thoroughly likeable Rose had won the Volvo Masters two weeks earlier.

There were many others around who, in terms of present form, commanded more attention than Monty and Marc. Raphael Jacquelin and the Barclays Scottish Open winner, Gregory Havret, were strongly fancied for France, South Africa’s Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman were joint-favourites with Rose and Poulter, and there were others, notably Miguel Angel Jimenez, Robert Karlsson and the young Argentine who so nearly won the Open at Carnoustie, Andres Romero, being talked up more than the seemingly “no chance” Scots.

Over four momentous days at Mission Hills, however, Montgomerie and Warren went on a personal mission to remind the world that Scotland remains the ‘Home of Golf’.

It was not just that they beat the tenacious American pair, Heath Slocum and Boo Weekley, at the third extra hole; it was the way they executed the first victory for Scotland since the event was launched - as the Canada Cup - in Montreal in 1953, ten years before Monty was born.

The quality of their play under huge pressure was outstanding. Although eight European Orders of Merit is  proof beyond doubt that Montgomerie can do it, there had been signs that he might have been losing it. Will any
of us ever forget his awful second shot to the 72nd green in the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot? Certainly
Monty won’t.

However, alongside 26-year-old Warren, much of the time he was the old Monty. As he always is in the Ryder Cup,
he was enthralled by the team aspect of the event, and much more relaxed than he is during individual competition, and, not for the first time in a roller-coaster professional career, Warren demonstrated that, once he gets...