Colin Montgomerie will renew an acquaintance with an old friend when he arrives at Valderrama Golf Club for the first World Golf Championships event to be staged outside the United States – the American Express Championship – from November 4-7.
Europe’s No.1 golfer has become synonymous with the famous course where he secured four of his Volvo Order of Merit crowns, captured the Volvo Masters in 1993 and, memorably, halved with American Scott Hoch on the final green in 1997 to help Europe win the Ryder Cup.
The course twists and snakes its way through the many cork trees which characterise the Robert Trent Jones-designed masterpiece on Spain’s Costa del Sol, and holds many fond memories for Montgomerie. In consequence, he is ideally qualified to offer an insight into a course which he considers to be “unique” in Europe.
He said: “It’s just a unique and very demanding test of golf which deserves to be staging the last event of the year, the American Express Championship. I am actually very glad we are playing that course as the last event of the year as we’ve missed playing there at the conclusion of the season.
“This is unique in that hitting the fairway is half the battle; hitting the correct side of the fairway is everything. You’ve got to play chess with the course and chart your way around. That’s why we won the Ryder Cup, I feel, because we had ten years of practice on it and the Americans had three days. That is why we won – because of our better course knowledge.
“It is definitely a game of chess. We find that length is not of a premium apart from the new, lengthened 17th, possibly. One hole out of 18 isn’t much and you can still make birdie the hard way. That’s why I’ve done particularly well because I drive the ball quite straight. Iron shots have to be controlled. You never get away with anything at Valderrama if the iron shots aren’t controlled.
“The course will be in great condition again. We take that for granted, but we have to respect that the green keepers do a fantastic job to get that course into the ‘Masters’ condition of Europe, you might say.
“I think everyone goes to an awful lot of effort to make it the best in Europe, and I think it’s the best inland course in Europe along with Loch Lomond. I rate them equally.
“Even after ten years the course can still catch you out. Just because a hole is a par four doesn’t mean it’s a driver. I’ll be asking my caddie, Alastair McLean, where the pin is off the tee. People might think I’m daft but it’s true.
“That means I need to know where to position my drive to get to the pin location, like at the eighth, for example. If the pin is at the front of the green I’ve got to be short right. If the pin is at the back I can attack it more. Every hole is fraught with danger, and I think it’s a very, very good test of golf.
“The 18th is a double dog leg. Anything right is dead. You’ve got to be left but big enough and high enough to carry the trees, just as I did in the 1997 Ryder Cup singles.
Montgomerie’s most vivid memory of Valderrama came in 1995, when he just edged out Sam Torrance for the Volvo Order of Merit thanks to a masterful closing nine holes, which he completed in one under par – knowing he needed to shoot that score to achieve his goal.
He added: “That was very satisfying. To give yourself a task, as I did – to play the back nine in one under par to win the Order of Merit – and to achieve it on a windy day was very satisfying.
“I got my one birdie at the 12th, which you don’t expect. I missed one at the 11th and made it as 12th. The two par threes on the back nine, at the 12th and 15th, are as tough as you get. It’s bad enough for a Ryder Cup to come down to one hole, but for the season to come down to one hole was something else and that happened. A whole season of 38 tournaments came down to that back nine and one putt from four feet on the last. It could never be closer.
“I’ve had a lot of great memories of that last hole at Valderrama. You can’t play any hole if you aren’t straight off the tee. It’s just a unique test of golf.”
It remains to be seen, but for Montgomerie to win a record seventh successive Volvo Order of Merit it could come down to the last hole again at Valderrama – in the American Express Championship.
