Colin Montgomerie has set his sights on playing in a winning European team at the Ryder Cup to be played at Gleneagles in 2014.

The Scot captained the team that defeated the USA at Celtic Manor this year, but poor form meant he was a long way from qualifying as a player.

Asked if he could compete again, he said: "I would love to do that in 2012 and, more especially, to play in 2014.

"I would be 51, but in golfing terms, I suppose, still quite sprightly."

Montgomerie is currently ranked 405th in the world but aims to rediscover the kind of form that earned him eight European Order of Merit titles and made him a colossus in the Ryder Cup arena, having earned 23.5 points from 36 matches.

"I've got to get myself back in the top 50 in the world," he told BBC Scotland.

"Every competitor in the Ryder Cup, all 24 of them, were in the top 50 in the world this particular time and I have got to get myself back in.

"My world ranking has lapsed, so I've got to get myself back in and that means not just competing in tournaments but contending in them.

"If I can contend in them - and by that I mean top 10, top fives - then sometimes the door might open and I'll walk through it and win events and that gets me back into the Ryder Cup theme.

"But I have a long way to go before that. The standard is improving all the time, but I look forward to trying to challenge for that."

Montgomerie was not for altering his decision to stand down as Ryder Cup captain after one successful tilt.

That would really be the icing on any cake for me - to play in a Gleneagles winning Ryder Cup team Colin Montgomerie

"It is only right that one of my vice-captains will take over 12 and another of them will take over in 14," he said.

"I think it is only right when one wins, one gets out. Where does one go? There's a time in these things to leave and that was it - to win and get out.

"But it doesn't finish me with the Ryder Cup, hopefully. I can still play and still earn my place on the team as a player.

"So let's hope that I can play, not just just in 12 but 14. That would really be the icing on any cake for me - to play in a Gleneagles winning Ryder Cup team."

Montgomerie hopes Gleneagles can repeat the success the event experienced in Wales.

"I don't there's many lessons to be learned," he said. "We all hope and pray that Gleneagles takes on that mantle through Ireland, which was a great success in 2006, on to Wales 2010 and then Gleneagles 2014.

"The event is improving on and off the course every year and I am sure that Gleneagles is in a well enough place.

"It is in an iconic setting, iconic hotel and grounds around that estate and I think it will do a fantastic job in staging the Ryder Cup here in Scotland."

Montgomerie said this would be a year he would cherish, despite his own slump in form.

"It was, in different ways, the most important year of my career by not really playing," he added.

"It was the worst year on the golf course but the best year off it in many ways and it was a real honour to be captain of the so-called European Tour for those two years and to captain such a fine 12 as we had on show in Wales.

"And let's hope that's maintained now through 2012 and, of course, coming into Gleneagles here in 2014 in Scotland."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version