Golf Events / Bill Elliott / 03 July 2008 / 1 Comments

Bill Elliott has been catching up with the superstars of European golf as they gather at the London Golf Club for this week's European Open. And a mercurial Spaniard has caught his eye...

Right, here is the deal this week. Rafael Nadal wins Wimbledon while Sergio Garcia wins The European Open at The London Club in Kent. It's a done deal too, Nadal and Garcia having shaken hands already on it.

Well, we will see. What is for sure is that Garcia intends haring up to SW19 tomorrow afternoon to watch his pal in semi-final action while Nadal plans a trip to the golf on Saturday afternoon to escape tennis tension. To put it mildly, the two young Spaniards are well up for it this week.

Garcia, of course, is making a rare appearance in this country. This is because (a) he is based in the USA and (b) one of our more ludicrous tax laws revolving around image rights - far too complex to go into here or, to put it another way, I've no idea what they are talking about - means his advisors do not like him playing in the UK unless he has to.

Reason he feels he has to this week is that he needs some points in the bag re the Ryder Cup. The daft thing is that both he and Padraig Harrington are not guaranteed automatic places as things stand and each is desperate for a good showing this time out. This is not added pressure, this is added incentive on a course that is demanding enough to reward genuine talent.

The next eight weeks will decide everything as far as the Ryder Cup is concerned as golf's big-money bandwagon rolls into its bonanza season with loadsadosh available everywhere, especially at The Open Championship in a fortnight and then the USPGA and World Championship weeks in August.

"I'm playing well and, though you never know in this game, I'm ready for some really good weeks," Garcia told me over an early breakfast. What is beyond doubt, however, is that the 28-year-old is now almost the complete article again after a few years dithering about for one reason or another.

He flew to Vienna last Sunday to watch Spain whack the Germans (hoobloodyray) before slipping quietly into Wimbledon on Monday to watch his pal start his tennis campaign. Young men feed off this sort of hectic lifestyle and Garcia is clearly on a high right now.

As is Colin Montgomerie. The big man finished second in France last week but in Monty's Engagingly Mad World this, apparently, means that he won for the first time in a long while. "It feels like a win anyway," he said.

"I've now gone eight rounds under par on the trot and it's a while since I found that sort of form. What it means is that I am now looking forward to the next eight weeks. Everything is up for grabs for me again."

Monty believes that he has at least one more Ryder Cup in him and that September's tussle in Kentucky surely will be this one. Perversely, when I asked him if he would pick himself as things stood at present, he stopped talking for a whole 30 seconds, carefully considered my ludicrous question and then answered thus...

"No, no, I wouldn't," he replied seriously. "I would pick Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington. But that is now, the real captain doesn't have to do anything until the end of August and things can change very quickly. What I have to hope is that those guys play themselves into the side during this period and that I do pretty good myself."

So it's a 'Monty Snubs Himself' shock. You have to like him. Now on the early foothills of middle-age he is still the best interview in town. A Ryder Cup minus his flouncing brilliance just wouldn't be the same and, you know what, this London Club set-up with its high rough and tight fairways just might suit him to a tee over the next few days. Happy days are here again. Maybe...

Tags: Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Ryder Cup, Sergio Garcia, The European Open, The Open Championship, USPGA, World Championship