Might be hedging out of this Monty play. Didnt realize he just fired his caddy :com:
COLIN Montgomerie has split with his caddie, Alastair McLean, just days before the start of the US Open in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.
Montgomerie, who is expected to hire a local caddie for the second major of the year, recently suggested that "something has to change". On Friday night, he decided what that something was.
Yet, even presuming Montgomerie's apparent dissatisfaction with McLean is justified, his decision to part company for the second time has to be seen as a throw of the dice. By definition, something will indeed have to change if he is to win a major for the first time in his career, and a man who will be 44 later this month can have little realistic hope of achieving a serious and lasting improvement in his game.
Instead, his best chance of breaking his duck will surely come from an injection of the unexpected, and the touch of luck which may come with it. A lightening of mood can also help, and a change of company often brings that about.
But when Montgomerie talks of change, first and foremost he will be thinking about his recent wretched run of form that saw him miss the cut at the Austrian Open on Friday, extending the longest winless streak of his career. His last victory came in Hong Kong in December 2005.
"They have agreed to take a break," Montgomerie's manager, Guy Kinnings, said yesterday of the split. "They needed to refresh things.
"Monty will probably hire a local this week who knows the course. I don't know what the long-term planning, is but it is accurate to say they are not working together next week."
Montgomerie himself was not available for comment, but it is believed he made his decision on Friday evening, shortly after missing the halfway cut in Vienna by five shots. It was at the Welsh Open a week earlier that he declared "something had to change" after a third-round 72, three over par, effectively ruled him out of contention.
His mood at Celtic Manor brightened somewhat after a closing 63, and when he arrived in Vienna a couple of days later he was in an optimistic frame of mind. "I am getting my game back," he insisted then. "There is no question that the dark, dark days of this year are over and I'm getting back to putting scores together as opposed to thinking about it."
But there was a question. The dark days were back, the mood worsened again, and then the decision was taken to end this second phase of the Montgomerie-McLean partnership.
The two originally worked together for ten years. McLean, a quiet Fifer who is a member of the famous Lundin club, was seen as a fine foil for heart-on-his-sleeve Montgomerie, and was one of the golfer's closest friends in the game.
They split up for the first time in May 2002, the "amicable" arrangement bringing to an end a relationship that had won seven consecutive Order of Merit titles and more than ?12 million in prize money. It was a shock parting of the ways, but significantly, Montgomerie was enduring one of the longest barren spells of his career.
They got back together a little over two years later, in August 2004, just before Montgomerie was given a wild card for the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills.
During that 26-month spell without McLean, Montgomerie worked with a number of caddies, failing to spark a successful long-term relationship with any of them. The nadir of that time came when he was accused of poaching Andy Prodger from his Ryder Cup team-mate Phil Price. Others who took on the bag if not the mantle were Steve Rawlinson and Andy Forsyth.
McLean spent two years working for Adam Scott after he parted with Montgomerie, and was at Sawgrass when the Australian golfer won the Players Championship in 2004, but split with Scott a few months before he was reunited with Montgomerie.
Just like this weekend's decision, the first split was prompted by Montgomerie's desire to improve his fortunes. It didn't quite work out that way. Having never been out of the top six in Europe when McLean carried his bag first time around, he had slipped to 24 by the time they got back together.
"There's no question Alastair and I are on the same wavelength," said Montgomerie in 2005. "I don't think it's any coincidence that Alastair was with me during those years of success and now he's here again. I don't know if Alastair is the best caddie in the world or not. But I do know he's the best caddie for me."
Although Montgomerie has a reputation for being short-tempered, particularly in the United States where for years he had to put up with barracking from a section of the public, he can expect quite a few offers to carry his bag this week. If he fails to win, no-one will blame the caddie; but on the other hand, if he does pull off what now seems like a close-to-impossible dream and actually wins the tournament, his caddie will be made for life.
Montgomerie came close to securing a major at last at the US Open last year, when he finished tied for second, a stroke off the lead.
While that tournament at Winged Foot gave Montgomerie hope, his return to Oakmont this year cannot have failed to evoke a mix of emotions. It was there, in 1994, that he lost to Ernie Els in a play-off.
Three years later, at Congressional, the Scot again had to accept he was second best behind the South African. After that came an eight-year spell in which his best performance was tied for 15th in 1999.
Last year, however, saw a significant upswing - one which for a few minutes at least saw him standing on the brink of victory. In the final round, a 50-foot birdie putt on the 17th took him into the lead. At the final hole, though, he pitched up short of the green, landing in the rough. He pitched on, but then three-putted, and lost the title by a single shot.
Phil Mickelson, who had a two-shot lead with three to play, also double-bogeyed the 18th. Jim Furyk had a chance of forcing a play-off by parring the last, but when he bogeyed, the title went to Geoff Ogilvy.
That poor final hole cost Montgomerie the title, with a change of club in the middle of the last fairway - from a 6 to a7 iron - blamed for the failure to reach the 18th green. In the aftermath, Montgomerie said: "The suggestion came from my caddie [McLean] but I'm in charge at all times of what club I hit."
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