Everlasting Monty
Soon to play his 600th tournament in the European Tour, Colin Montgomerie’s statue was erected in Belek. The famous Scottish golfer honoured the unveiling of his statue located at the first tee of the golf course he designed, Montgomerie Maxx Royal. Chairman of the ETS Group Mehmet Ersoy and Montgomerie Maxx Royal Golf Course General Manager Cahit Şahin congratulated the world-renowned Scottish golfer. The golfer expressed that the statue was a great surprise and said “It’s a great honour for me. My life is golf.”
The marble pedestal of the statue lists his achievements: winning 31 European Tours, captaining the 2010 Ryder Team, 2014 Senior PGA Championship and US Senior Open trophies. Considered to be one of Europe's best golfers, Colin Montgomerie is an eight-time best golfer of the European Tour and has played in the European Team of the Ryder Cup eight times.
AMAZING FEELING
After playing in the Pro-Am, speaking as he prepared to host eight members of this year’s winning Ryder Cup team in the Turkish Airlines Open presented by the Turkish Ministry of Youth and Sports on the Montgomerie Maxx Royal course in Belek, Monty mentioned that he couldn’t believe the passing years. About his 27-year journey of golf, “I have to pinch myself whenever I think about that happening on a course I designed. When you think it’s been 30 tournaments for 20 years in a row, it’s a lot and a long walk. 30 tournaments in 20 years in a row. As a bad flyer, I suppose I’ve flown to 500 of them,” the eight-time European No 1 admitted.
Colin Montgomerie expressed that he was very pleased to be competing in the Turkish Airlines Open once more and added “I feel as if I’m sort of hosting the 77 players here this week. We got great feedback regarding the course last year and it’s really good to hear the same things this year.”