Pernice, Monty and Men In Pink

Filed in archive Golf News on July 5, 2008

There are many thousands of tour pros playing the game today. Most of them don't get any ink at all, not even the smallest passing mention in an obscure story on the wires.

The select few who play the game well - those on the World's Top Ten list, for example - garner the lion's share of the attention.

And then there are the golfers who get coverage because of what they say or what they do. Off the course, that is.



John Daly falls squarely into this category.

And so does Colin Montgomerie. Monty can be alternately gracious and gregarious or sullen and sarcastic.

But in a game where saying the right thing is as common as a smooth swing, guys like Monty offer something different.

It's not that the Scot is always right when he opens his mouth. Rather, it's that he says what he thinks and damn the consequences.

He does not particularly like English golfer, Ian Poulter (among others). The two had words several years ago when Montgomerie accused Poulter of not being a team player at 2004 Seve Cup (ironically, Nick Faldo accused Monty of the very same thing at last year's Seve Cup).

Poulter and Monty are competing in the European Open at the London Golf Club in Kent. Yesterday, after berating a TV cameraman, Monty then lit into Poulter who played in a pink golf shirt and pink slacks.

"I don't often chase men in pink", said Colin, "but I managed to catch him...and we finished tied". Actually both men were tied with three others for fifth place after round two.

Quoted Poulter when asked about the remark," I might not have noticed".

On the PGA Tour, Monty's equivalent might be Tom Pernice Jr. Pernice doesn't necessarily cast insults but he does speak his mind and he's one of the few who says the stars of the game - Mickelson and Woods - aren't doing enough to support the Tour that has made them enormously wealthy.

Pernice's arguments on this point are sound but, because he's just a journeyman, his remarks will be regarded as sour grapes, just a lot of griping and grumbling coming from a guy who couldn't quite make the big time of PGA golf.

But without the Montgomeries and Pernices of the golf world, what do we have? We have a world where "everything is good and everything is fine" and the endorsement deals continue to roll in.

I vote for the shit disturbers.