Open Title Fight: Lyle vs. Montgomerie

What the heck is going on in the world of golf?

Mutiny on the Bounty at the U.S. Women's Open last week, players toppling a Commissioner.

This week with the historic Open Championship being staged in their home country two Scots are going toe-to-toe and the world is watching.

Forget about the Race to Dubai. It might become the "War of Who Should be the Scottish Ryder Cup Captain?" It certainly is a bit of a Scottish row and will likely extend up to and including the 2010 Ryder Cup in Wales at the Celtic Manor in exactly 443 days.

Who says golf is not a sport? Certainly boxing is a sport.  For golfers this pretty dicey sporting fight is about as good as it gets in a game where all physical contact is avoided. God forbid a golf ball may come in your direction. Any chance of contact and one yells "fore."

In January Colin Montgomerie was announced as Europe's Ryder Cup Captain for 2010.

As a winner of the European Order of Merit a record eight times, 31 European Tour victories and a member of five victorious Ryder Cup teams in a row Montgomerie has an impressive golfing resume.

Missing on that resume is being a champion on the world of golf's biggest stage.   

Number of Majors won by Colin Montgomerie: ZERO.

Enter deserving Ryder Cup Captain Sandy Lyle winner of two Majors- the 1985 British Open at Royal St. Georges and the 1988 Masters Tournament.

After all he was Assistant Captain of the 2006 Ryder Cup team and at age 51 is five years older than Monty.

No matter there as the European Tour appointed Monty to the prestigious role of Ryder Cup Captain.

Okay if you were Lyle you would be pissed too.

Then someone brings up how you withdrew from the Open last year and even calls you a quitter even though you had a legitimate hand injury.

Hey what about Monty when he was caught cheating on video tape in Jakarta at the 2005 Indonesian Open?

Before the rainstorm he had a tough lie near a bunker. He practiced a few swings with an awkward stance with his feet in the bunker. Play was suspended. He came back the next day and the ball was gone. The player takes a drop in a more favorable location away from the bunker. He saves par and goes on to win the tournament and resurrect his career. At least for a year.

Playing partner Soren Kjeldsen, who had witnessed the breech then did what golfers do and "protected the field" and reported the incident to tournament officials.

When confronted with the video evidence Monty called it an honest mistake and donated his winnings to charity.

Honestly how could a man of integrity make a mistake like that?

Nothing new here, nothing fabricated, everything's well documented.

But golf is about honor and decency and played by gentleman who should and for the overwhelming majority do call penalties on themselves.

Withdrawing from a tournament even the Open is one thing. Cheating is another.

Plus golf gives respect to its elders or at least it use to.

Just ask Mr. Palmer or Mr. Nicklaus.

On the golf course go ahead the young can beat up the old. It's pure competition- eat or be eaten. All is fair within the rules of golf as long as all is known and the rules are applied fairly.

Why wasn't Monty DQ'd in 2005?

Older, more heralded golfers should be made captain first.

Maybe the European Tour wanted a purely perceived Scot to lead their team next year at Celtic Manor. Sandy Lyle has a home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and the site of his prestigious PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in 1987.

Montgomerie has never won a golf tournament in America let alone be embraced by American golf fans.

There was an incident at last year's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines where Monty was cutting across the gallery line to the 16^th tee. A spectator held the rope up as high as he could. Monty misjudged its height and branded himself with the rope line across his forehead.

He went another fifteen feet, stopped and turned around and stared down the poor guy. All the guy did was try to help him by raising the rope. He did not lower it as Monty thought.

So don't expect Monty to turn the other cheek to Lyle on this one.

And don't expect Lyle to say anything other than the facts are well documented and it's unfortunate this thing has gotten blown way out of proportion.

This is basically what he did in a hastily called press conference this afternoon at Turnberry.

The reading of his written statement drew more interest from the media in terms of cameras and bodies present than Tiger's morning interview.

His answering of questions that followed the written statement indicated no real remorse other than sadness having been passed over by the European Tour and snubbed by Monty since the announcement in January.

Monty went from supporting Lyle for the captaincy to taking it for himself. Most revealing he did so without regret or throwing a bone or extending an olive branch to Lyle by picking him as an assistance captain. Such a gesture would have set up Lyle to be the undisputed captain in 2014.

Maybe that is why Monty was picked as Captain over Lyle in the first place.

Faldo a good friend of America as CBS golf analyst failed as Ryder Cup Captain at Valhalla last fall. Maybe a more contentious approach is needed to bring the Cup back to the Euros at Celtic Manor in 2010?

So this is all about who got the promotion at work and who really deserves it.

Hopefully in two days time when the Open starts at Turnberry it will be all about who can compete and who will win the Claret Jug.

Who is the Commissioner of the European TOUR?

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering for the tournaments and working part time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel. He resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach. He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to [e-mail]