: Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:55 am
airliebird9 wrote:
Not really sure how the Monty converstaion got on the Wimbledon thread but here's my 2peneth.
Both Monty and Tenmen have reached the pinacle of their chosen sport in terms of how many people try and fail to get to the level they have both performed at. However, neither has ever been world class, they have had occasional bursts of inspiration which has almost won them MAJOR titles (The Ryder Cup is a team game). Tenmen, I feel was the unluckier of the pair, he always seemed to be in the same half of the draw as pistol Pete at the top of his game(at Wimbledon anyway). We will not be reading about either of them in the tennis or golf book of legends in 50 years time!
The Ryder Cup is a team game where the best 12 (?) players in Europe are chosen either on merit or by the captain. If Montgomery gets in the team of the best 12 European male golfers and has an outstanding record in Ryder Cups and comes close to winning majors on a few occasions, most notably last year's US Open, how can he be described as not being "world class". Montgomery also won something like 6 consecutive European orders of merit. For some reason, whatever it maybe, he's never won a major, but to argue that he's never been a world class golfer is b*llocks surely, especially if you use the argument that it's a team game - is Lionel Messi therefore not a world class footballer? Are you arguing that Paul Lawrie, Todd Hamilton or Ben Curtis are better golfers than Montgomerie purely because they've won 1 major each, but probably missed dozens of cuts and not even qualified for others?
Similarly Henman, for all his limitations, has been to 4 Wimbledon semis and has been as high as number 4 tennis player in the world, so I don't see how it can be argued that he's never been world class.
