Ryder Cup Betting / Ralph Ellis / 22 September 2010 /

No-one doubts Colin Montgomerie will bring plenty of enthusiasm and passion to his role as Ryder Cup captain but the way he's planning on motivating his players is more suited to the battlefield than to the golf course...

There are some sports which need to be played with passion. Rugby League is an obvious one, which demands physical aggression and determination to run into a series of big hits. Union, the same, and obviously football too as anybody who rings the countless weekend phone-ins to moan about their team's latest defeat will no doubt tell you.

But there are others that don't; others that rely on relaxed, calm technique and cool nerves when the pressure is at its hottest. Snooker comes to mind, but most of all golf. When you watch the world's greatest players there's one thing that continually shines out about how they perform: they are just so goddam calm. If Ernie Els had been 'The Big Tantrum' rather than 'The Big Easy' I'm not sure he'd have ever won a penny in prize money, as opposed to the 50 million dollars and counting that he has collected over 20 years at the top of the game.

So when you pick up this morning's Daily Express and find that Colin Montgomerie is promising to bring passion to the European Team room with a Churchillian speech at the start of Ryder Cup week, I'm not sure it bodes ever so well for our chances.

Now I know I've never been a fan of Monty as captain for Celtic Manor. It has always seemed to me that he's approached the job not so much as Europe's leader but as a one-man crusade to show how wrong it was for Nick Faldo to drop him from the last team. And sure enough he's still having little digs at the way Faldo prepared for Valhalla. "Last time around there did not appear to be the passion," he says. "I will assemble everyone on Monday night and there will be so much passion in that team room that everyone will leave shaking. I can assure you everyone will go to bed that night thinking 'My God'."

Maybe it's me, but if I was a player that's exactly what I'd go to bed thinking if I had to listen to Monty giving it the "Fight Them On the Beaches" approach. Except not for the reasons the skipper was hoping.

It's no coincidence that when Ian Woosnam was in charge at the K Club four years ago, Europe equalled their record win, and but for Paul McGinlay's generous decision to concede a 25 foot putt to JJ Henry because a streaker had run across the final green would have won by ten points. Woosie brought the players together and gave them a good time.

The names in Europe's team look impressive this year, but the bottom line is that Monty has six rookies - and people like Sweden's Peter Hanson will have enough pressure already on the hilly Celtic Manor course without it being stoked up any further.

Europe are [1.76] to win the match now and that looks more and more like one to lay - especially when you compare Monty's approach to America's captain Corey Pavin. He was asked what advice he'd give his rookies. "Breathe, would be a good thing," he said with a smile. "I'll just say slow down, relax, and swing smooth."

That's not going to help St Helens or Wigan win Super League's Grand Final. But at Celtic Manor? It sounds far more positive than all the passion you could muster.

Five things you might not know about Peter Hanson

1.Born in Svedala, Sweden, in October 1977 his parents weren't too fussed about sport - but he was friends with a neighbours son and went with them to play golf

2. He's still coached by Jan Larsson, the professional at Bokskogen golf club near Malmo where he first played, although he now lives in Florida

3. He won the Brabazon Trophy as an amateur in 1998, and secured his first professional win the same year at the Gunther Hamburg Classic on the Challenge Tour - after failing to qualify for The Open which took place the same week

4. Away from golf he's into rally driving and often enters events when he goes home to Sweden.

5. He uses a putter called the 'Rossa Itsy Bitsy Monza Spider'. Until he started using it he ranked 113th in the putts per round statistics, but in the first event after switching he shot up to eighth and won the SAS Masters in Sweden.

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