Colin Montgomerie has turned to a sports psychologist to put him in the right frame of mind to finally slay his major tournament jinx at next week’s British Open.
The big Scot suffered his most agonising near miss yet when he left a seven iron from the centre of the fairway short of the final green in last month’s US Open, running up a double-bogey that allowed Geoff Ogilvy to claim the title.
The traumatic events at Winged Foot left Montgomerie with the unhappy distinction of being the only player to record five second places in majors without ever having won one.
But he remains convinced that, at 43, he still has time to capture one of the sport’s biggest prizes, provided he can get his mental approach right.
That is where Hugh Mantle comes in.
”You either don’t want to learn from it or you do — and hopefully we’re going to learn from it,” Montgomerie said of his recent conversations with the sports psychologist.
”We’ve been through it all and hopefully if that occasion happens again in the not-too-distant future I will be able to cope in a different way.”
Montgomerie, who was due to tee off in the £2,4-million Scottish Open at Loch Lomond on Thursday, has remained in good form since returning to Europe and he will head for the Royal Liverpool course at Hoylake next week buoyed by positive memories of last year’s Open, when he emerged from the worst slump of his career by finishing second to Tiger Woods.
”That gave me my belief back and that was all I needed,” he recalled.
”I’m looking forward to enjoying myself next week, and if I enjoy myself, I usually play well.”
Montgomerie is not the only 40-something player looking to put on a show next week at Royal Liverpool.
After sharing third place at St Andrews last year and at this year’s US Masters, Fred Couples refuses to accept that his chance of adding to his solitary major win (the 1992 Masters) has gone.
Couples, who turns 47 in October, has struggled since his surprisingly strong showing at Augusta National, where he played alongside eventual winner Phil Mickelson in the final pairing on the Sunday.
”I hit a wall after Augusta and I just haven’t bounced back very well,” he admitted here.
But after a break from the game which allowed him to spend several days at Wimbledon last week, Couples believes he can still be competitive in the strongest of fields.
”It is not like I can sit here and tell you I’m going to be up there at Hoylake,” he said.
”I just have to be ready and swinging well and that doesn’t happen nearly as much, but I’ve not yet got to a point where I think age is a factor.
”Because when I do well I don’t think it is surprising and I do the same things that I did 10 or 12 years ago. I hit the ball solid and very long.
”Even though there are 40 percent of the people now that hit the ball as far as I do, compared with a handfull back them, I feel like I’m smarter on the course.” – Sapa-AFP