“I have kept it quite quiet but I’m not well so we just keep going and we will get through to Sunday.”
When Colin Montgomerie talks, the golfing world listens. And even on those occasions when he didn’t talk, those glowering, seething silences would still speak volumes.
This week, the host of this week’s Staysure PGA Seniors Championship at Trump International Golf Links on the outskirts of Aberdeen made an eyebrow-raising and concerning admission.
After a 1-under 71 in the first round, Monty revealed that this over-50s showpiece may be his last event of 2024 due to ongoing health issues.
“I haven’t been well the last six months, I have been very poorly,” said the 61-year-old. “I have been taking a lot of time off. I have never done that in my life.
“I might take the rest of the year off. I need to, I’m not well. “Asked to elaborate, Montgomerie would only say that his problems were “internal.”
With the kind of enduring properties you’d get with a cast iron rivet, Monty continues to soldier on. On the face of it, a 71 over this exacting, unforgiving links wasn’t bad at all. Try telling Montgomerie that.
“Colin Montgomerie of old would have shot 66,” he said with the kind of yearning sigh that could’ve been accompanied by a wistful Perry Como song.
“Colin Montgomerie at 61 shoots 71. It is as simple as that. I maximize every score right now. That is what I do every round. It’s frustrating. You can’t score 67 when you have played 67-ish.”
He followed with a 73 in the second round of play to still sit inside the top 15.
If the tools of his long-standing trade do get shoved away at the end of this week, Montgomerie was asked about alternative pastimes. “How’s your gardening?” chirped one of the media men.
“It’s about to become an awful lot better,” chuckled Monty as he conjured up a delightful image of him edging the grass and gently tending his hardy Geraniums.
“There’s lots of grass to do, I can’t wait. I’ll be like Bob MacIntyre’s father. But me putting the clubs away in August? It’s unheard of.”
