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Golf

Monty hoping to hit form ahead of Ryder Cup

08/07/2008

Ryder Cup hopeful Colin Montgomerie believes he will need to hit form over the summer if he is to force his way into contention for the European team.

Montgomerie has played in eight Ryder Cups, has never lost a singles match and his overall points tally of 23.5 is only 1.5 points behind the all-time record, which is held by current European team captain Nick Faldo.

Recently, Montgomerie claimed that if he was the captain he would select Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald ahead of himself, given their recent tournament form.

But he says he has not given up hope of recapturing his best game before the competition begins in Valhalla on September 19th.

"Golf is a momentum-type game - you have to make hay while the sun shines," he explained.

"When you are playing well and striking the ball well you have to maintain that.

"Let's hope that over the next few weeks I can get in the Ryder Cup team [automatically]. If not, I hope I can prove to the captain that I am still capable of performing on the world stage."

Montgomerie also said is under no illusions about Faldo's wildcard selection criteria, which he believes will be made solely on the respective form of all the players in contention.

"I have a lot of respect for Nick and I'm sure he has for me and there'll be no personalities involved in who he picks – he'll pick the strongest players that he feels will do the job in Valhalla," he explained.

"If I can prove myself to him then I might be one of those, but we'll just have to wait and see."