It's Ryder Cup Week! And, so, Rumors feels compelled to get it started with a post on Colin Montgomerie -- in part to keep with tradition and in part because, as always, he insists.
Monty, who will be at Medinah in a non-playing, non-captaining capacity working for the Golf Channel, told Ewan Murray of The Guardian over the weekend that he's worried American crowds might get a little rowdy outside Chicago, which could make things tough on Team Europe. Oh, yeah -- and 9/11 fits in there somehow. As Murray reports, quoting Monty at length:
Now Montgomerie has claimed the amount of time passed since the terror attacks on the twin towers could have reduced the respect offered by the United States' supporters towards this week's opposition."There is a risk," Montgomerie said. "I think the world changed. I mean the Ryder Cup and sporting events, when America played internationally, changed since 9/11."America realised we were their allies, their great allies, but that was 11 years ago and time moves on. Everything moves on and I have a slight fear that it is going to be very difficult for us Europeans to perform to our potential in a very difficult place to be."I think that what you find is that playing away from home in America when they want it [the Ryder Cup] back is a difficult place to have to play golf and I do hope that everyone realises that and allows the Europeans to play to their potential. Unfortunately, on the Sunday of the Ryder Cup in 1999, that wasn't available to us."
Something tells us that the Chicago fans won't be too worried about the Europeans' ability "to play to their potential." And Monty should know that there are two ways to guarantee a rowdy showing by the American fans: 1) Tell them to be quiet and 2) Tell them you expect them to be loud.
