July27 Monty

Colin Montgomerie says the opening of the Ryder Cup course at Celtic Manor will mean that more of his European team-mates will feature at the Wales Open.

The most famous team tournament in golf is scheduled for the South Wales venue in 2010 and Monty, who has represented Europe eight times since 1991, believes European players will want to stake their claim to be in the 2008 team with a strong performance.

He told the Western Mail: “I think you will find a stronger field in the Wales Open next year. With 2008 Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo looking on, it is very difficult to ignore the winners of the event round that course if that winner happens to be European.

“The winner will be right in Nick’s mind so I think you will find a much stronger field than we have had.”

Although the big Scot has supported the event for the last four years, only one member from the 2006 Ryder Cup winning team, Robert Karlsson, joined him at the tournament which was eventually won by Richard Sterne.

Picture by Getty Images

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