Turkish Airlines Open: Colin Montgomerie to make 600th European Tour appearance

Colin Montgomerie celebrates a major landmark in Turkey this week when he tees it up on the European Tour for the 600th time – aptly coming in the Turkish Airlines Open on the golf course which sports his name.

The Montgomerie Maxx Royal hosts this week’s European Tour event, where Montgomerie will become just the seventh man to play in 600 events in his career.

The 51-year-old has won a record eight Oder of Merit titles when he dominated the European scene, and has claimed 31 victories and around $24.5m in career earnings.

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After making his debut in 1986 at the Care Plan International, Montgomerie’s last win on the European Tour came at the 2007 European Open at The K Club, and now he is delighted to be achieving such a landmark.

“It’s a great honour to be among about seven European Tour players who have reached this milestone before and it’s a privilege to have joined such an illustrious group,” Montgomerie told Sky Sports News HQ.

“It’s taken 27 years to achieve, it’s been a long walk but a very, very good one and a very successful one so I’ve been very fortunate.”

Montgomerie cites his hat-trick of PGA Championship victories at Wentworth – the European Tour’s flagship event – as he greatest achievement on the European Tour.

Highlights

“The highlights I suppose were the 1998, 99 and 2000 PGA wins down at Wentworth, when you win that tournament three times in a row that will be the highlight of it,” he added.

“I could talk all day about certain tournaments and certain wins I suppose, but I would always go back to the three PGA wins I managed to achieve.

“We’ve been all over the world and you look at some of the far flung places, we’ve played in New Zealand and the Monterrey Peninsula in California and Pebble Beach is lovely, of course we get to play at Augusta.

“But to play and to win at St Andrews was one of the greatest moments of my career, only 45 minutes from where I live so to win at the home of golf was special.”

Montgomerie has enjoyed great success since joining the Seniors Tour, and he will be crowned the European No 1 this season, but he also is hoping to challenge the younger breed on the course he designed in Turkey this week.

“This is a modern course we’ve built meaning it’s long and tough and very gruelling, built for 25 years olds not 51-year-olds like myself,” said the 2010 winning Ryder Cup captain.

“But I’ll be doing my best to compete and if I can hole out and putt well, like any golfer knows, if you putt well then you have opportunities.”

Watch Colin Montgomerie and the rest of the field at the Turkish Airlines Open live on Sky Sports 4 HD starting from 9am Thursday.