In 1988, Montgomerie turned professional before the season began. He was named the Rookie of the Year on the European Tour that year. He quickly developed into one of Europe's top pros, winning his first event at the 1989
Portuguese Open TPC by 11 shots, and his second, beating a world class field, at the 1991
Scandinavian Masters at Royal Drottningholm Golf Club in Sweden. He made his
Ryder Cup debut later in
1991. He finished first on the
European Tour Order of Merit every year from 1993 to 1999 (a record for most consecutive Orders of Merit), and has 31 victories on the tour, including the 1998, 1999, and 2000 Volvo PGA Championships at Wentworth, England. However, despite many near-misses, Montgomerie was unable to win on the PGA Tour. Montgomerie first reached the top-10 in the
Official World Golf Rankings in 1994, and spent
400 weeks in the top-10. His highest ranking was number two. In his prime Montgomerie was considered one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world and became a very precise iron player, often able to judge the distance he hit the ball exactly from long range. Montgomerie came first in the Volvo Bonus Pool every year from 1993 to 1998. The Volvo Bonus Pool was an extra tranche of prize money awarded at the end of each European Tour season from 1988 to 1998 to the regular members of the tour who had had the best performances over the season. His form fell away gradually in the new millennium, partly due to marriage problems, and his ranking slumped to 82nd in the world, but he came back strongly in 2005, winning a record eighth European Tour Order of Merit and returning to the top ten in the World Rankings. Late in 2005 he became the first man to win 20 million Euros on the European Tour—topping the European Tour's all-time highest earners list. He won for the first time in nearly two years at the
Smurfit Kappa European Open in July 2007. In 2008, Montgomerie slipped out of the top 100 players in the world ranking system. A runner-up finish at the 2008 French Open in June boosted him back up the rankings, but his good play was short-lived, and as a result Montgomerie failed to qualify for
Nick Faldo's 2008 Ryder Cup team. In March 2009, Montgomerie played in his milestone 500th
European Tour event at the
Open de Andalucia where he made the cut, but was not in contention during the weekend. He remained the leader in career earnings on the European Tour until 2010, when he was surpassed by
Ernie Els. After nearly two years without a top-10 finish, Montgomerie posted a final round of 68 for a share of 7th place in the 2011
BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Despite the drop in form, his influence remained strong. In 2012, Montgomerie was named by the
Golf Club Managers' Association's Golf Club Management magazine as the seventh most powerful person in British golf. In August 2012, Montgomerie finished tied for 6th at the
Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, his highest finish in over four years. In June 2013, after turning 50, Montgomerie joined the
Champions Tour, where he made his debut in the
Constellation Senior Players Championship, one of the five
senior major championships. On 25 May 2014, Montgomerie won his first senior major championship at the
Senior PGA Championship. He followed this up on 13 July 2014, when he claimed his second senior major at the
U.S. Senior Open. On 24 May 2015, Montgomerie defended his
Senior PGA Championship title to win his third senior major. However, in 2016 he narrowly missed out on making it three Senior PGA Championships in a row – finishing second and three shots behind winner
Rocco Mediate. He won twice on the senior circuit in 2017, winning the inaugural
Japan Airlines Championship before claiming his sixth Champions Tour win at the
SAS Championship. His most recent victory came at the
Invesco QQQ Championship in 2019.
Major championships Montgomerie is generally considered to be one of the best golfers never to have won a major championship, after finishing in second place on five separate occasions. During what most consider to be his best years in the 1990s Montgomerie had several near-misses. A third place at the
1992 U.S. Open at
Pebble Beach Golf Links was the first of these. He was prematurely congratulated by
Jack Nicklaus who said "Congratulations on your first U.S. Open victory" to Montgomerie after he finished the 18th hole on Sunday.
Tom Kite, who was still on the golf course when Montgomerie finished, won the championship. At the
1994 U.S. Open, played at
Oakmont Country Club, Montgomerie lost in a three-man
playoff to Ernie Els (a playoff which also included Loren Roberts). Montgomerie shot 78 to trail the 74s shot by Els and Roberts, with Els winning at the 20th extra hole. At the
1995 PGA Championship, Montgomerie birdied the final three holes of the
Riviera Country Club course in the final round, to tie
Steve Elkington at 17 under par. On the first sudden-death playoff hole, after being in a better position after two shots, Montgomerie missed his putt, while Elkington holed from 35 feet to claim the title. Els defeated Montgomerie at the
1997 U.S. Open, played at
Congressional Country Club. Montgomerie opened the tournament with a 65 but shot a 76 in the second round. A bogey on the 71st hole dropped Montgomerie one shot behind Els, who parred the last to win. At the
2006 U.S. Open, played on the West course of the
Winged Foot Golf Club, Montgomerie had yet another chance to win his first major championship. He stood in the middle of the 18th fairway in the final round having sunk a 50-foot birdie putt on the 17th green, which put him in the joint lead with Phil Mickelson. While waiting in position on the 18th fairway for the group in front to finish, Montgomerie switched his club from a 6-iron to a 7-iron, assuming adrenaline would kick in. Once the wait was over, he hit the approach shot poorly, ending up short and right of the green, in thick rough. He pitched onto the green, and then three-putted from 30 feet to lose the tournament by one stroke. After the loss, Montgomerie said, "At my age I've got to think positively. I'm 43 next week, and it's nice I can come back to this tournament and do well again, and I look forward to coming back here again next year and trying another
U.S. Open disaster."
Geoff Ogilvy won the championship. Montgomerie's best finish in the
Masters Tournament came in
1998 when he finished tied for 8th. At
The Open Championship in 2001 at
Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Montgomerie started brightly with an opening 65, and still remained ahead after 36 holes, but he fell away over the weekend. He was also in contention with two rounds to play at
Muirfield in 2002 and
Royal Troon Golf Club in 2004, but failed to capitalise and finished midway down the field. His best finish in the Championship came in
2005 at
St Andrews, where he finished second to
Tiger Woods, who beat him by five shots. In 2016, Montgomerie came through Open Qualifying at Gailes Links to qualify for his home Open at Royal Troon. He had the honour of hitting the opening tee shot at the tournament and ended up making the cut. Following
Sergio García's victory at the 2017 Masters, Montgomerie (with 75 starts) trailed only
Jay Haas (87) and
Lee Westwood (76) as the player with the most starts without a major title.
Ryder Cup Despite his disappointments in the majors, Montgomerie is heralded as one of the greatest Ryder Cup players of all time. To date he has been a member of the European team on eight occasions, and has never lost in a singles match. He holds a win-lose-draw record of 20–9–7, thus giving him a total points scored tally of 23.5, only 5 points behind the all-time record held by
Sergio García. He has played pivotal roles in several of the matches. He halved the last hole with
Scott Hoch to obtain the half-point that won Europe the cup in
1997, and sank the winning putt, in what is considered to be his finest hour in the
2004 staging of the event. Montgomerie was not part of Nick Faldo's 2008 Ryder Cup team, with the wildcards going to
Paul Casey and Ian Poulter. Montgomerie captained the Great Britain and Ireland team in the first four stagings of the
Seve Trophy, losing in 2000 but winning in 2002, 2003, and 2005. On 28 January 2009, it was announced that Montgomerie would be the captain the European team at the
2010 Ryder Cup at
Celtic Manor. On 4 October 2010, Montgomerie led the European team to victory, 14 to 13. On the same day he also announced that he would be stepping down as captain of the European Team. In December 2010, he accepted the BBC Sports Personality Coach of the Year award as captain of the victorious Ryder Cup team. Montgomerie has been the playing captain of the European team in the
Royal Trophy, played against a team from Asia. Europe was successful on both those occasions. He has the distinction having been a victorious player and captain in the Ryder Cup, Seve Trophy and Royal Trophy. 2006 In 2011, Montgomerie was named president of the English junior golf charity, the Golf Foundation, and in 2012 the Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, named him as an ambassador for the Scottish junior golf programme, ClubGolf. In March 2015, Montgomerie accepted the captaincy of
London Scottish Golf Club in Wimbledon to mark that club's 150th anniversary. Montgomerie was also a columnist for the Scottish golf magazine,
Bunkered, between 2008 and 2010. Montgomerie represents the
Turnberry resort in Scotland, where there is a Colin Montgomerie Golf Academy. ==Personal life==