Reacquainting himself with Pilates and focused on losing weight during the coronavirus lockdown, Colin Montgomerie admitted he gave up his favorite foods.
Asked which ones, he said, “All of them.”
Although he smiled, clearly, he wasn’t kidding. While people around the world lamented their junk food bingeing, there was no COVID-19 (pounds) for him.
Montgomerie counted calories, and confessed that it was pizza that he craved.
“I really love some pizza,” he said. “And it said 330 calories. I said, ‘Well, that’s not bad.’ Then I read further on, it said per slice. Times eight. That’s a day, that’s a day and a half.”
Holed up at home, Montgomerie and his partner Sarah Casey first did Pilates via Zoom with his instructor in England. Then he realized he could invite the instructor into the backyard of his home, where he has a Reformer machine.
“He’d done it before last year,” Casey said of the workout, a series of precise movements to strengthen and stabilize core muscles. “It’s difficult when you’re out on tour, so he decided to get back into it when you’ve got five months.
“We did it together, [I was] encouraging him. It gave you something to focus on when you’re stuck at home and the world’s in turmoil.”
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Five months later, Montgomerie emerged 42 pounds lighter. Fellow members of the PGA Tour Champions may have done a double-take when he arrived in Grand Blanc, Michigan, two weeks ago for the Ally Challenge.
“Who cares if it sticks. He now knows he can do it whenever he wants to,” Jerry Kelly said. “It may take a five-month break, but that’s all right. I think he did a great job.”
Montgomerie, 57, surely cares, and he hopes his transformation also brings results on the course. It did Friday, when he was one of four players in a field of 79 to shoot under par at Firestone Country Club. His 1-under 69 left him tied for second behind Kelly after two rounds of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.
The dogged face of Montgomerie has become his signature since the Scottish star turned pro in 1987. Montgomerie relied on that same strong will when the world was stopped in its tracks by COVID-19.
“It was tough, but he’s quite determined,” Casey said of Montgomerie’s strict diet. “So once he set his mind on it, that was it.”
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Montgomerie said he got started almost by accident. Playing in the Champions Tour’s Chubb Classic in Naples, Florida, Feb. 14-16, he said he struggled with the unseasonably hot temperatures and vowed to do something about it.
Then at the beginning of the pandemic he fell ill — not with coronavirus, he said — and he lost “half a stone,” which is seven pounds. That prompted him to keep going.
The result was a three-stone weight loss.
Montgomerie said he chose Pilates because he believes it will extend his career.
“Flexibility is going to stop us,” he said. “It’s what stopped Nick Faldo, it’s what stopped Seve [Ballesteros] in his later years. It stopped Ian Woosnam, really. It stopped Sandy [Lyle] many times. There’s only one of that top five that’s kept going, and it’s Bernhard [Langer]. And I don’t know what all he does.
“But flexibility will stop us playing the game. I’m very lucky, I’m very flexible, but I’ve got to keep it.”
Montgomerie feared he would lose strength along with pounds. When he returned to the U.S. in advance of the Ally Challenge, he was forced to quarantine for 14 days. He spent that time in Naples, Florida, where his coach, Kevin Craggs, is based.
“I was a bit worried when I came out. I wasn’t timing the ball well at all,” Montgomerie said. “My body was moving too quickly for my arms because it was lighter.”
Montgomerie believes he is putting it together now. That could bode well for his chances at Firestone, where his best finish was fourth in the 2001 World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational.
“I feel better, so it’s good. And I’m in good position here, too, to do quite well,” he said. “Who knows?”
With that, Montgomerie was off to an unsatisfying lunch. Being in position to capture his first victory since the Invesco QQQ Championship in October, 2019 might have helped him handle the rabbit food in store.
“I hate where you get these menus now and they put calories on,” he said. “You go into Cheesecake Factory and it goes, recommended 2,500 calories for a man and 2,000 for a woman. Well, you can’t have — you can’t eat. No chance.
“So I’m back on the bloody, whatever … I’m going to have a salad. I’m looking forward to the weekend.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.
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