Montgomerie wants win to help his chances of Cup wild card
GLENEAGLES (Reuters) - Colin Montgomerie is determined to come up with his first win of the year to help him land one of European Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo's two wild cards.
Faldo makes his two choices on Sunday, after Europe's top-10 automatic qualifiers have been decided at the close of the Johnnie Walker Championship which starts on Thursday.
Montgomerie took the last two weeks off, making it impossible to qualify by right for the team, so he has to rely on his admirable past record in eight matches.
However, the 45-year, eight-times European number one knows a victory this week might tip the balance on his selection.
"I have no idea how he (Faldo) feels I have to perform this week," Montgomerie told a Gleneagles news conference on Wednesday. "But hopefully I'm past the stage of justifying my Ryder Cup potential.
"My game two weeks ago was poor in America and I took a couple of weeks off, the second week I've been practising up here at Gleneagles every day. I feel very confident now in trying to win this event.
Montgomerie said that, for the first time, he was using "fancy technical stuff" on the practice range to help him drive further.
"This course has five par-fives and they are our scoring holes. With four of them reachable (in two shots) for the longer hitters, I feel I'm going to have to be slightly more aggressive to win here than is normal.
"I'm looking for another 20 yards off the tee, I think I've got 15 yards of it so I'm still five short."
Montgomerie is in the mix for a wild card with several others. Fellow Britons Paul Casey and last week's Dutch Open winner Darren Clarke look like being his chief rivals.
The Cup match against the United States takes place at Valhalla, Kentucky, from September 19-21.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
