The greatest day in Colin Montgomerie’s career is now obvious to all, but he revealed the very worst was when he had to leave his friend Paul Casey out of what would eventually be the triumph of Celtic Manor and the regaining of the Ryder Cup.
The first day of the rest of Monty’s life and career after the extraordinary high of victory over the USA was a lot like the last two years, with a round of press interviews and the ornate little gold cup perched at his elbow the whole time as he arrived at St Andrews for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
But, looking forward, he hinted strongly that he plans to try to ease the path of his successor in making the team selections down the line.
“Even when we won three in a row in 2002, 2004 and 2006, I didn’t feel the selection was right,” he said. “It was the worst day of my professional career at Gleneagles back in August when I had to leave out world players, top 10 players.
“Paul Casey is a very good friend of mine, he attended my wedding. I’ve always been of the opinion that the captain should have four picks and no doubt that will be discussed by the tournament players committee when we meet in the coming months before the next captain is picked.
“I am only one vote on that committee but I’m sure it will be talked about and changes may be put in place.”
Meanwhile, the outgoing captain was adamant that he would not seek the office again.
“There are no circumstances under which I would do the job again,” he stressed. “I believe that Jose Maria Olazabal is an outstanding candidate to be the next captain, and I would be honoured to help him or whoever the next captain in any way I can to ensure this cup remains in Europe, but as for the captaincy itself it is a one-time thing now.”
Meanwhile, he’s almost relieved that if he shoots a decent score this week the discussion will be about that and not the cup.
“Every time I’ve spoken to anyone in the last two years it’s been about 30 or so other guys, and not about what I’ve done,” he said.
“That’s fine, it comes with the territory, but it will be nice to speak about my own game if I do well.
“My game has suffered, but I knew that would happen, it was a sacrifice I had to make.
“I look at Lee Westwood now at No 2 in the world and all credit to him, and I remember what it was like when I was No 2 and it was Greg Norman ahead, and thinking about what I had to do to get ahead of him.
“But when you’re number 400-plus you don’t think about who is ahead of you. I want to get back to competing and contending again and I haven’t had a top 10 in two years, but now’s the time that I can concentrate on my own game again at last.
“It will be tough and it is a goal to be in the European team in two years’ time as a player. Ray Floyd played in a Ryder Cup at 51 so I’ll be setting no records there.
“But it is clear to me that my best time, in 1997-1998 when I was the No 1 in Europe, just wouldn’t be good enough in today’s game, I’ll have to be better than that.”
Monty will play with his elder brother Douglas in the three-cornered Dunhill event he won in 2005, the springboard to his final Order of Merit title that year. That seems an age away after all that has happened since, particularly the rollercoaster of his captaincy and the culmination on Monday.
Europe’s hero Graeme McDowell, meanwhile, also has no expectations for his week after the “out of body experience” of Monday and the realisation that his life goals will have to be entirely rewritten.
“I was just saying to my caddie, how do I top this in 2011?” he said. “I’ve lived through two of my biggest golfing dreams, winning a major and holing the winning putt in a Ryder Cup, in the space of four months and just feel incredibly lucky.
“I had to work very hard to get off the cloud nine feeling after the US Open and here I am back in Scotland like I was after that, the whole tour is buzzing and I’m back on that cloud again. But these are great problems to have and it’s been amazing.
“To win the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews would complete the year, and obviously I like the tournament and got beat in a play-off with Stevie Gallacher in 2004, but my expectations levels are pretty low this week.
“Links golf is in my blood and I played okay at Carnoustie this morning, but I just had an out of body experience and getting my head screwed back on again is going to be tough. Sometimes expectations can be a killer and if you don’t have any sometimes it works out wellwe’ll see.