Say It So: Even Money On Monty For 2010! **
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Lawrence Donegan reports the stunning shift in online wagering that has overnight lifted Monty from 10-1 longshot to an even-money second favorite to captain the 2010 European Ryder Cup team.
My sources say that Monty, after ragging on the over-50 set and doing some math to realize he'll be 51 in 2014, started a Gordon Gekko-esque operation to drive up his online betting stock and at the same time, bring joy to bloggers on the westside of Los Angeles desperate for the great-Scot-in-his-own-mind to remain in the spotlight.
Donegan says it's something else. Sort of:
Like Olazábal, Montgomerie has been intent on playing his way on to the team but the fact is he is now 127th in the world rankings and showing no signs of recapturing the form that once made him an automatic choice for any Ryder Cup side. But if he is not the player he once was, he still the remains a significant figure on tour — popular with fans and, more important in these straighten financial times, popular with sponsors.
It has long been assumed the Scot would take on the Ryder Cup captaincy in 2014, when the event will be played in Scotland, but there is a mood within the players' committee after Nick Faldo's captaincy that the team needs a captain who competes regularly against, and is in touch with, potential team members.
**Derek Lawrenson confirms that the bettors know what they're doing, suggesting that Monty-as-captain is a done deal, pending the ability to admit he's no longer competitive:
Monty and Ollie should be the next two captains and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that there could be a double announcement when the skipper is named in Dubai in a fortnight - with the former pencilled in for Celtic Manor and the Spaniard appointed for America in 2012.
'Expect something innovative,' said one committee member, mischievously. Naming both might come with the intriguing bonus that the names could be flipped should either start playing well when the race to make the team begins in September.
That's not innovative. That's massaging bloated egos and telling the world how little they think of Sandy Lyle or Paul McGinley.
