Colin Montgomerie: Major Ironman, Plays Seven Majors in 2015

While the younger golfers talk about limited schedules, Champions Tour player Colin Montgomerie is taking on a challenge that would make most professional golfers shudder.

“I've got seven major championships to play in this year. And I enjoy them all. Thoroughly,” he said prior to the Senior PGA Championship.

He’s already played five of those seven over a seven-week period, with three weeks in a row that included the Constellation Senior Players and the U.S. Open followed by the Senior U.S. Open.

The major run started the middle of May with the Regions Tradition—first major of the year on the Champions Tour where he finished T-24.

Immediately after the Regions Tradition, Montgomerie teed it up at the Senior PGA Championship where he was defending champ. He won it, capturing his third senior major, becoming one of two Champions Tour players to have their first three victories in majors. The other was Jack Nicklaus.

“He wasn't too bad, was he?” Montgomerie quipped.

At the Constellation Senior Players, he finished T-3.

The following week, as winner of the 2014 Senior U.S. Open, he was exempt to the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. He became one of eight Senior U.S. Open champs since the event’s inception in 1980 to make the cut, finishing T-64. Before anyone criticizes that, Phil Mickelson also finished T-64.

Other Champions Tour players to make the cut in a U.S. Open are Dale Douglas (1986, T-31), Jack Nicklaus (1994, T-28), Dave Eichelberger (2000, T-52), Hale Irwin (2001, 52nd), Peter Jacobsen (2005, 15th), Fred Funk (2010, 70th), Kenny Perry ( 2014, 28th) and now Montgomerie (via USGA).

This past week, he teed it up in his third major in three weeks, the Senior U.S. Open. Amazingly, he finished second. Earlier in the week he celebrated his 52nd birthday and talked about both USGA events.  

“It's been a great honor to be a USGA Champion,” he said early in the week. “I was proud of the fact that I made the cut last week, the only guy that was over 50 in the field that did that, because the course really didn't suit my style of play. But at the same time, I did okay.”

He compared his game to the younger players at the recent U.S. Open.

“Dustin Johnson was out there on the course and hitting clubs into holes that I didn't know existed,” Montgomerie added. “I mean, the 7th hole, I'm going in with two woods. The 14th hole, I'm going in with two woods. The 13th hole, two woods. The 4th hole, two woods. He's going in there with wedges at most.”

Amazingly, Montgomerie also did broadcast work for Sky Sports after playing in the U.S. Open. Apparently no one thought he would make the cut, except perhaps Montgomerie himself.

Now that the Senior U.S. Open is finished, he is headed to Scotland where he said it will be 40 degrees cooler.

Four weeks from now, he will play in the Senior British Open and will cap off his run of majors in the U.S. with the PGA Championship due to the exemption gained with his victory at the recent Senior PGA Championship.

Regardless of where he finishes in those tournaments, the fact that he will have played seven majors this summer, two of them with regular PGA Tour players, shows not only how well his game has held up, but how physically gifted and mentally strong a player he is.

Does he have secrets to his ability to continue at this level? He said he has retained his flexibility and has not over-practiced.

“You put these two together, and really, being 52, I'm really sort of 45 in golfing terms,” he said. “You see the guys beating balls day after day, and the injuries appear. I'll touch wood here. I've been very, very fortunate that I've never really missed a day's work through illness or injury over a 30-year cycle.”

Maybe some of his good fortune is related to his superstitions. Many athletes have them, and Montgomerie is no exception.

“It's bizarre what we do, but left sock goes on first and right sock goes on last,” he began. “I never, ever use any tee that's not colored white because yellow and red marks water hazards.”

His ball marker has to be just so.

“I usually mark the ball with a ten pence coin, a British ten pence coin, queen head up,” he added. “My coin always goes in my back pocket to avoid getting in the way of the tees.”

He knows he’s not alone in this.

“It's madness,” he admitted. “The superstitions of what we do is quite bizarre.”

Whether it’s because of or in spite of his peculiar habits, Montgomerie won the Order of Merit eight times in Europe—seven in a row. He has 48 worldwide victories and 31 on the European Tour, which ranks fourth most behind Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Tiger Woods.

In 2004, Montgomerie was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours, a title conferred by Queen Elizabeth II for service to the United Kingdom.  

He was undefeated in Ryder Cup singles play and captain of a winning European Ryder Cup team in 2009. Montgomerie was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2013. 

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the PGA Tour, USGA or PGA of America.