Colin Montgomerie

Colin Stuart Montgomerie, OBE (born 23 June 1963) is a Scottish professional golfer.

He won three important Scottish amateur tournaments – the 1983 Scottish Youths Championship, the 1985 Scottish Amateur Stroke Play Championship and the 1987 Scottish Amateur Championship.

He played for Great Britain and Ireland twice in the Eisenhower Trophy (1984 and 1986) and twice in the Walker Cup (1985 and 1987).

He was also part of the Scottish team, winning the 1985 European Amateur Team Championship at Halmstad Golf Club, North Course, in Sweden.

Before turning pro he considered a career in sports management, utilizing his degree in business management and law; the interview process included a golf outing that convinced the firm he should become a client rather than an employee.

Montgomerie turned professional before the 1988 season and was named the Rookie of the Year on the European Tour that year.

The Volvo Bonus Pool was an extra tranche of prize money awarded at the end of each European Tour season from 1988 to 1998 to the regular members of the tour who had had the best performances over the season.

He quickly developed into one of Europe's top pros, winning his first event at the 1989 Portuguese Open TPC by 11 shots, and his second, beating a world class field, at the 1991 Scandinavian Masters at Royal Drottningholm Golf Club in Sweden.

He made his Ryder Cup debut later in 1991.

He has won a record eight European Tour Order of Merit titles, including a streak of seven consecutive from 1993 to 1999.

He has won 31 European Tour events, the most of any British player, placing him fourth on the all-time list of golfers with most European Tour victories.

He finished first on the European Tour Order of Merit every year from 1993 to 1999 (a record for most consecutive Orders of Merit), and has 31 victories on the tour, including the 1998, 1999, and 2000 Volvo PGA Championships at Wentworth, England.

However, despite many near-misses, Montgomerie was unable to win on the PGA Tour.

Montgomerie came first in the Volvo Bonus Pool every year from 1993 to 1998.

Montgomerie first reached the top-10 in the Official World Golf Rankings in 1994, and spent 400 weeks in the top-10.

His highest ranking was number two.

In his prime Montgomerie was considered one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world and became a very precise iron player, often able to judge the distance he hit the ball exactly from long range.

Montgomerie won three consecutive Volvo PGA Championships at Wentworth Club between 1998 and 2000.

He has finished runner-up on five occasions in major championships and his career-high world ranking is second.

His form fell away gradually in the new millennium, partly due to marriage problems, and his ranking slumped to 82nd in the world, but he came back strongly in 2005, winning a record eighth European Tour Order of Merit and returning to the top ten in the World Rankings.

Late in 2005 he became the first man to win 20 million Euros on the European Tour—topping the European Tour's all-time highest earners list.

He won for the first time in nearly two years at the Smurfit Kappa European Open in July 2007.

In 2008, Montgomerie slipped out of the top 100 players in the world ranking system.

A runner-up finish at the 2008 French Open in June boosted him back up the rankings, but his good play was short-lived, and as a result Montgomerie failed to qualify for Nick Faldo's 2008 Ryder Cup team.

In March 2009, Montgomerie played in his milestone 500th European Tour event at the Open de Andalucia where he made the cut, but was not in contention during the weekend.

He remained the leader in career earnings on the European Tour until 2010, when he was surpassed by Ernie Els.

After nearly two years without a top-10 finish, Montgomerie posted a final round of 68 for a share of 7th place in the 2011 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Despite the drop in form, his influence remained strong.

In 2012, Montgomerie was named by the Golf Club Managers' Association's Golf Club Management magazine as the seventh most powerful person in British golf.

In August 2012, Montgomerie finished tied for 6th at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, his highest finish in over four years.

He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2013.

After turning 50 in 2013, Montgomerie has had a successful career on the PGA Tour Champions and European Senior Tour, including winning three senior major championships.

Although Scottish by birth and ancestry, he was raised in Yorkshire, England, where his father, James Montgomerie, was Managing Director of Fox's Biscuits.

He spent a number of years with the Ilkley Golf Club, where he was tutored by the past professional Bill Ferguson.

He was educated at both Leeds Grammar School and Strathallan School, Perthshire.

During his time in Leeds, he became a supporter of Leeds United.

His father later became the secretary of Royal Troon Golf Club, one of Scotland's most famous clubs.

Montgomerie became one of the first British golfers to go to a United States college, attending Houston Baptist University, where he played on the golf team and became its top player.

In June 2013, after turning 50, Montgomerie joined the Champions Tour, where he made his debut in the Constellation Senior Players Championship, one of the five senior major championships.

On 25 May 2014, Montgomerie won his first senior major championship at the Senior PGA Championship.