COLIN Montgomerie has compared being left out of Europe's Ryder Cup team to losing his mother to cancer.
The Scot has starred in every Ryder Cup since 1991 and has been a talisman, making up for his failure to win a major with a series of stellar performances against the Americans.
Europe and America will clash later this month in Kentucky. And, fo
r the first time since 1937, they will do so without a Scottish player. Montgomerie was told he was out by team captain Nick Faldo in a voicemail message.
Listening to Faldo explain that he wouldn't be in the team "was like losing my mum". His mother, Elizabeth, died of lung cancer in 1991.
"When someone is terminally ill and expected (to die] and then suddenly the phone call comes through from my dad then it's a shock.
"This was nothing similar to that obviously, but at the same time it has that same feeling. When there is half a chance and it doesn't happen then it is difficult."
Montgomerie has been off his form all season. However, he is understood to feel he and one or two other players are "big characters" whose faces don't fit with Faldo, an old nemesis.
The Ryder Cup is played every two years, and Montgomerie's next chance will be in Wales in 2010.
He said: "This is just one of those things; the opportunity's not there this time. Hopefully, God willing, it will be next time."
