38th Ryder Cup
Venue: Celtic Manor, Newport Date: 1-3 October Starts: 0745 BST on Friday Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live & online, live text commentary online & daily highlights on BBC TWO. Live on Sky Sports 1
 Montgomerie never lost a singles match as a Ryder Cup player |
Colin Montgomerie has already written a losing speech ahead of the Ryder Cup. The European team captain has also prepared an opening ceremony address he hopes will inspire his players ahead of the event, which starts on Friday. He said: "I've had to prepare a runner-up speech, or the non-winning speech. If the result doesn't go our way I think it's very important to prepare." The United States team landed in Wales on Monday greeted by a "Welcome to Montgomerieshire" billboard. Their charter flight from Atlanta, adorned with British Airways livery, appeared through a grey Cardiff sky and touched down at 1105 BST. Montgomerie and Ryder Cup officials were waiting to greet Pavin and his players ahead of a news conference in the main terminal building. Two years ago Nick Faldo was criticised for a rambling speech to his players during the opening ceremony, something which Montgomerie will be conscious of when he addresses the team on Thursday afternoon. The Scot said: "I'm not going to say anything about Nick because I wasn't there. It's so important for the team to have a huge respect for the captain leaving that ceremony." Considered one of the best Ryder Cup golfers of all time, Montgomerie never lost a singles match in his eight appearances as a player and feels a huge responsibility going into the three day event as a non-playing captain: "It's a major part of my career. I've been at this for 25 years and this for my players is the most vital four or five minutes that I have.  | 606: DEBATE |
"I will practise, I will get this right. I will have them standing up and leaving that ceremony feeling that we are going to win this Ryder Cup. That's all I can do." Montgomerie also heaped praise on Tiger Woods, denying reports he had omitted the world number one when asked which players from the US team he would like to choose from. "I have always said that Tiger is the best player in the world and the best player to have ever played the game," he said. "Of course he would be in my team. It's the first time Tiger will have played in Wales as a professional. We're delighted he's here." Jim Furyk heads to Celtic Manor after winning golf's biggest prize at the weekend. The American won the Tour Championship by one shot from Ryder Cup rival Luke Donald and picked up a £6.3m FedEx Cup play-off bonus to take his total earnings for the tournament to £7.2m.
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