THE SENIOR OPEN PRESENTED BY ROLEX

July 26, 2023

Colin Montgomerie

Royal Porthcawl Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Wonderful to see you again. Obviously a tournament that you relish and have good experience with. How much are you looking forward to the week?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I am, indeed. Every time I cross that Severn Bridge, the Prince of Wales Bridge, you come to Celtic Manor Resort on the M4, it brings back great memories of our time in Wales and the time I spent in Wales in 2009 and 2010.

So every time I come back, I relish it, and especially coming to this golf course, as well. This is a damn good golf course, this, damn good golf course. A real test of character and it has a lot of elevation to it.

But a good test, a good overall test, and we are all looking forward to the challenge of it.

Q. It's going to be a challenge obviously but where do you see most of those challenges coming? I know those greens are very tricky certainly if you don't put the ball in the right position.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: The greens have a lot of undulation to them. Most links greens really don't. The trouble is really off the tee with most of the links greens, but here, here it's actually everything. They put in a number of fairway bunkers, new fairway bunkers, in the last five or six years since we were last year, and it's made it much tighter off the tee.

So you'll see a lot of people having to think more on the tee shots than just hit a driver down there aimlessly and try and find it. Now there's bunkers in the way and you know in links golf, it's a standard issue, Brian Harman proved it in The Open: You stay out of the bunker, you drive it well here, you can score. You can always move it forward from the rough. You cannot move it forward from the bunkers; you're sideways, and he proved that last week.

So it's not just -- it starts from the tee shot, and that's the sign of a good hole and a good overall golf course.

Q. Your tee shot is your bread and butter. Watching you yesterday in the Pro-Am, looked like you were putting on a clinic for three or four holes. How is the form?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: It's actually quite good. If I play that way for four days like in the Pro-Am yesterday, we'll do okay. It just depends. I'm 60 now and things start going awry, and you go, why did I do that? I never used to do that. Why did I make that mistake or why did I hit that shot? I never used to do that.

You've got to think that I'm a grandfather now and 60 years old and things aren't probably as good as they used to be.

But I'm as ambitious as ever. I want it as much, and I look forward to the challenge of it. I look forward to the competition. I love the competition, and I really look forward to putting myself against not just this field but against the golf course, as well, to get around this course because you've got to play chess with this golf course. It's a very, very good one.

Q. How much do you continue to learn at this point in your career? I know Pádraig Harrington turned you on to jelly babies, which seemed beneficial.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: That worked. That worked. How much do I learn? I think if I don't learn after every round of golf, it's been a complete waste. I learn something knew about myself, about the ball, about the clubs, about the lies, about what to do. I learn something; and you must take something from every round of golf and I still do.