Colin MontgomerieThere is a corner of every golfer's single-track mind that quietly obsesses about team sports. Every two years when the cream are snatched from their lonely vigil on the practice ground or the well-appointed sofa in the belly of their Gulfstream, they line up for the Ryder Cup.
After wandering the globe as one-man bands they are confronted with the quirky idea of gelling together into a team and asked to think about the dynamics of working together for a common goal. Very quickly they realise that they enjoy departing from the self and offering their services to the collective. For professional golfers this line of thinking is normally a kind of heresy.
Of all the converts at The K Club, it was the father figure of the European team and at 43 years old the eldest player of either squad, Colin Montgomerie, who emerged as the spokesman for yesterday's European togetherness.
Montgomerie also revealed receiving the captain's pick from Bernhard Langer two years ago acted as a catalyst for reviving the Scot's hopelessly flagging career. Montgomerie now looks to teamwork as the power that has put the ball in the hole for Europe and he looks to the selflessness of the squad as the key to winning this year's competition for the fifth time is six competitions.
"I think it's on the greens that we've won the Ryder Cup in four of the last five," he said in his utterly convincing way. "That goes back to team spirit, where we are willing each other to hole putts for each other. I don't hole a putt for me in the Ryder Cup at all. My individual record is meaningless here, absolutely meaningless. I don't care about it at all.
"All I'm holing putts for is Sergio. I'm holing putts for Padraig Harrington or Paul McGinley or Darren or whoever it might be. I'm not on any personal crusade here at all, not at all. I'm just here for the team members and they feel the same about me. That's why the putts tend to go in."
Other than playing Montgomerie has been given a different role within the team, one he won't reveal until Sunday, but one, too, that will surely prevent Europe from making the same mistake as the US in 2004 by pairing their best players, Tiger and Michelson, together.
"Last time when the other 10 members of that American team saw Woods and Mickelson lose, it was more than one point," observed Monty. "Padraig and I knew that, knew that this was worth an awful lot more than one point. Because, it was the first game up as well. I do believe that all the eggs were thrown in the same basket."
Now he is simply thankful and clearly in a more comfortable place, both on and off the course, than he was in 2004.
"That selection by Bernhard two years ago was vital for my career, that's for sure. I was 41 at the time and it was not looking good," he says. "That pick saved me in many ways. Fate played its part and it was me who was given the opportunity to hole the winning putt and I took it. It did rejuvenate me and my career. And I went on to win the Order of Merit the following year.
"It was a very, very important captain's pick, one of the most important ones for someone's career there has ever been, I'm sure." It's a different sort of mind game and a changing Montgomerie too. Some shadow boxing perhaps but maybe somewhere subliminally, Montgomerie, who is the targeted player at the US events for the most vitriolic insults, wants to return Langer's favour.
Yesterday as he walked the course with David Howell, Paul Casey and Luke Donald, it was difficult to escape the sense of Monty the mother hen fussing and prodding and using the experience of his seven Ryder Cup appearances to put a word in the right place at the right time. Liking it too.
"Do you enjoy this week more than any other?" he was asked.
"I think I enjoy personal success, of course I do," he replied. "But I enjoy this more than any other, yes, yes."
Believe it too.
