On a glorious spring day in Michigan's Great Southwest, a playful and relaxed Colin Montgomerie endeared himself immediately before an eager battalion of TV cameras, radio microphones and the poised pens of print, blog, and magazine writers on Media Day for the 77th Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid.
Acknowledging off the bat that Championship Executive Committee Chairman Mike Todman, recently retired from Whirlpool, had beaten him at a late night round of putting by floodlight on the Harbor Shores practice green, Montgomerie went on to regale the army of reporters with stories as he sat down to a "fireside chat" with the PGA of America's Julius Mason in the PGA Tent at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club.
Montgomerie, who hails from Glasgow, Scotland, will return in a month to defend the title he has won for the last two years, going for the three-peat over the Memorial Day weekend in Benton Harbor. His victory on the Harbor Shores course in 2014 was his first ever victory on American soil and it holds a very dear place in his heart. He went on to successfully defend his title at French Lick last year and hopes to be the first to go back-to-back-to-back since Hale Irwin did so in 1996-97-and-98.
He'll face a field of 155 other top rank professionals here, but says he's ready. He's finished fourth in his last two outings on the Champions Tour this year and says his golf game is "satisfactory…" and he's "quite satisfied." Regarding winning, Montgomerie told Mason and the crowded tent today, "I suppose when you win, you want to go right out and win right away again." He says he mentally prepares himself saying, "I've done it once, how can I better that and do it again."
The Scotsman hadn't actually planned a professional golf career. While playing as an amateur he had applied for a job with IMG the International Management Group that reps athletes, events, fashion models and other talent. While interviewing with officials from the firm he was playing golf with several company execs and became alarmed when they told him, "I don't think you're going to be working for us, we're going to be working for you!" They told him his talent was very well suited to a career in professional golf, but he still felt like he had failed the employment test. Nevertheless, he says, "They gave me the confidence I need to do this job." Clearly, it's a job he is performing exceptionally well. His first three wins on the Champions Tour were all majors.
Montgomerie has also been tabbed as the "Greatest Ryder Cup Player in the history of the game." He takes pride in that designation, because he revels in the "chess like" game of mastering the opponent "eye-to-eye." In his entire Ryder Cup career, for the European contingent, he never lost a title match, and in 2010 he was the winning Ryder Cup Team Captain.
Montgomerie has also been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, who likes Harbor Shores a lot. He says to win at Harbor Shores, "It's all about the second shots. You have to be able to hit your first shot exactly where it needs to be to set up for a successful second shot." Even he admits, however, that, "Just as soon as you think you've mastered this game, it comes back to bite you, and it gets harder every year."
Mason had some fun with Montgomerie as well, asking who he felt should play his life story in the movies, to which he replied, "I would guess Clooney or Brad Pitt," drawing laughter from the crowd. Mason then flashed a screen showing the likes of Gary Busey, John Candy, Sean Connery and "that guy who played "The Greatest American Hero" on TV back in the early 80's.
Monty didn't hesitate to answer Bernhard Langer when asked who he felt was the best player he had ever seen play the game of golf. He said Langer "does everything right, and he's been the standard out here (on the Champions Tour), and I totally 100-percent respect him."
The defending champ has scored 17 holes-in-one in his life, 10 as a pro and 7 as an amateur, including "one that was a slam dunk."
After joining the Golf Channel early this morning for a cooking demonstration with bread+bar Chef Tim Foley, Montgomerie admitted he does not know his way around the kitchen, which set the stage nicely for a round of "Guess the Kitchen Utensil" with a variety of KitchenAid products he was handed including a small chopper, an ice cream maker, a donut tin, a salt & pepper shaker "hammer" for your outdoor grill, and a spiralizer attachment for the iconic KitchenAid stand mixer.
After answering a few media questions, Montgomerie walked to the first tee for the cameras and then headed off on his round with playing partners Ross Smith, the Pro at Harbor Shores, KitchenAid's Deb O'Connor, and the President of the PGA of America, Derek Sprague.
Before hitting his first shot, Montgomerie told reporters he thinks that John Daly will do great things for attracting new spectators to the galleries of Champions Tour events, especially at Harbor Shores next month.
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