Colin Montgomerie

Hole: 2 Par: 5 Yardage: 555 * A look at the key hole in the third round of the 61st Masters: * RESULTS: 0 eagles; 14 birdies; 24 pars; 8 bogeys; 0 others. * STROKE AVERAGE: 4.870. * THREE-ROUND AVERAGE: 4.972. * RANKING: 15th toughest. * KEY FACT: A two-shot swing early in the round. Tiger Woods hit a nine-iron over the green on his second shot, chipped up to one foot and made birdie to get to nine under.

It has finally come to this for Tiger Woods. His Ryder Cup captain, Corey Pavin, has rendered him irrelevant, without a word of explanation. Pavin has become a master at not explaining. He wears that like a badge of honor. While his counterpart, Colin Montgomerie, takes us along on his daily passionate roller coaster through this prestigious international golf event, Pavin carries on with stiff upper lip. Questions are deflected. Defeat is not defeat until it is official. The pasting his team took Sunday is not a negative, but a motivation.

With Tiger hitting his prime in his recent crushing of the field at Torrey Pines, it is time to level the field using the same handicap system that we amateurs have used for decades. This way, using their scoring average, players can get the appropriate number of strokes from Tiger and make the event competitive, rather than a fight for second place. For example, Phil Mickelson would get two strokes a round, Fred Couples three, and someone like Colin Montgomerie would get five or six. Kevin H. Park Woodland Hills -- It's clear that it is time for the PGA to break the tour into divisions -- the Professional division and the Tiger division.

They played the Barclays here Sunday, the first of the four FedEx Cup playoff events. But there was much focus on golf's next big thing, the Ryder Cup. There were developments, all expected to have a significant impact on the Oct. 1-3 competition in Newport, Wales, between the United States and Europe. First, Tiger Woods shot a final-round 67 here and probably eliminated any doubt that U.S. Captain Corey Pavin would put him on the team. Pavin has four picks to round out the team of 12, will announce them Sept.

Colin Montgomerie, struggling for much of the Skins Game, won $415,000 and the title by making two routine pars, including one Sunday for a playoff victory over Fred Couples at Indio. Playing the skins format for the first time, Montgomerie won the event when he earned $340,000 on the third and final playoff hole at Landmark Golf Club. Couples, the defending champion and all-time Skins Game money-winner, finally ran out of luck and shots on that hole.

Grow up, Europe, and take your Ryder Cup loss like men. No amount of whimpering and moaning will bring back the Cup. You choked--deal with it. Sorry if our galleries were a little unruly, but next time tell Colin Montgomerie to keep his mouth shut and we might be more polite. Sure, we celebrated Justin Leonard's 45-footer like a bunch of kids. Get used to it. This is the Ryder Cup, American-style, and if you don't like it, in two years suck it up and try to do something about it. CLYDE HARKINS Santa Ana There is much to criticize about the Ryder Cup matches.

His face is the color of a ripe tomato. And now that he has given up dieting, it appears as though he is hiding potatoes in his shirt. It's quite a portrait, all right, when Colin Montgomerie hits the golf course. With red hair flying, red face squinting, the burly Scot may look like a refugee from the salad bar, but on the first day of the U.S. Open he looked more like somebody intent on getting his first helping of a major championship.

The thing about Colin Montgomerie is, his disposition would have to be improved to be considered merely irascible. "Cantankerous" comes to mind. You might say he has the outlook on life that's a cross between a pit bull and a traffic cop whose corns hurt. His name should be "Colic" Montgomerie. Tommy Bolt lives. Only, with the burr of the Scottish Highlands in his speech, not the twang of the Louisiana bayous. He glares at the golf course as if it owed him money.

He got $1 million for eight hours work, but it was no gimme for Colin Montgomerie. Montgomerie blew a huge lead on the back nine before recovering to beat Davis Love III, 2-up, in Sunday's 36-hole match-play final of the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf. "Golf is a game that it really isn't over until it's over and that's the beauty of it," Montgomerie said. "Even at 4-up, I knew it wasn't over and I started thinking too much and Davis came back strong."

Colin Montgomerie, who came into the British Open swaggering and serene, is no longer in a really great mood. It could be because he shot a 76 in the first round on his home course or because he's 12 shots behind the leader or simply because he's a sourpuss, but Montgomerie was not exactly jovial Saturday. A sample of a brief conversation with reporters: Q. "Do you think your golf is solid right now?" Montgomerie: "That's not what I would call it." Q.

In retrospect, maybe it was the putter. Tiger Woods switched back to his trusty Scotty Cameron model for Sunday's final round and promptly birdied two of his first three holes. Both came from only about the 10-foot range, but they went in. Woods' even-par 72 featured just 27 putts — five fewer than any other round this week on the Old Course. And no three-putt greens. "I just felt that my speed was off," he said after finishing in a tie for 23rd, "and just going back to something where I know how it comes off."

To some American golf fans, he's the dour Scot who bristles at fans who move or even dare whisper while he's trying to play a shot, but to the Europeans, he's the quick-witted icon who now holds their international golf aspirations in his hands. Colin Montgomerie, sometimes referred to derisively as Mrs. Doubtfire and heckled extensively during the boisterous 1999 Ryder Cup in Brookline, Mass., on Wednesday was named captain of the European team for the 2010 Ryder Cup, to be played in Wales.

With Tiger hitting his prime in his recent crushing of the field at Torrey Pines, it is time to level the field using the same handicap system that we amateurs have used for decades. This way, using their scoring average, players can get the appropriate number of strokes from Tiger and make the event competitive, rather than a fight for second place. For example, Phil Mickelson would get two strokes a round, Fred Couples three, and someone like Colin Montgomerie would get five or six. Kevin H. Park Woodland Hills -- It's clear that it is time for the PGA to break the tour into divisions -- the Professional division and the Tiger division.

Coming off his first golf victory in 19 months, Colin Montgomerie appears hungry for more. Montgomerie showed no effects from an emotional victory four days ago in Scotland, matching his career-low score in the United States with a six-under-par 64 that gave him a three-shot lead Thursday in the American Express Championship at San Francisco.

The last round on the last day of the last golf tournament of the year is a dash for both the finish line as well as the cashier today at the Target World Challenge, where Colin Montgomerie holds a two-shot lead over Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Jay Haas, with the winner's share of $1.25 million at stake. Montgomerie shot a 67 to reach 13-under-par 200, played the last three holes in three under, and considered himself fortunate.

He crossed the international dateline three times in the last month and Colin Montgomerie figures it has helped his golf game. "I play better when I'm half asleep," he said. Next, maybe he should try playing in his pajamas. Anyway, someday soon, Montgomerie is going to wake up and it's going to be next year, which will be good news.

The last round on the last day of the last golf tournament of the year is a dash for both the finish line as well as the cashier today at the Target World Challenge, where Colin Montgomerie holds a two-shot lead over Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Jay Haas, with the winner's share of $1.25 million at stake. Montgomerie shot a 67 to reach 13-under-par 200, played the last three holes in three under, and considered himself fortunate.

He crossed the international dateline three times in the last month and Colin Montgomerie figures it has helped his golf game. "I play better when I'm half asleep," he said. Next, maybe he should try playing in his pajamas. Anyway, someday soon, Montgomerie is going to wake up and it's going to be next year, which will be good news.

It might be a gamble or brilliant strategy, but Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton's insistence that he isn't going to tell any of his players their partners until today is a clear change in philosophy for the U.S. team. Tiger Woods said that in the past he had known for months what his pairings might be. "This is ... something I've never experienced," Woods said. "So I think it is refreshing.

Colin Montgomerie has always been a difficult guy to get your arms around, and not only because he's pudgy. It's his nature. Montgomerie can be cantankerous, abrupt, chronically moody and often downright unfriendly. At 41, any chances for personal improvement may appear slim, because Montgomerie looks as if he's a finished product. Then again, maybe he isn't. There is another side of Montgomerie that he showed last week in the small town on the Ayrshire coast where he grew up.