EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Although Colin Montgomerie took a dive down the world rankings in 2008, he has had none of the negative financial repercussions off the course that might have hurt a lesser character. Far from fading from the public's view, this charismatic and often controversial soul is better placed than ever to comply with sponsor requests to promote their wares and keep guests entertained.
You ask IMG (UK) where he stands in terms of marketability among their list of clients and they mention him in the same breath as reigning back-to-back Open Championship winner Padraig Harrington. Montgomerie may not have signed anything in quite the same league as the Irishman's recent long-term, $14 million deal with Wilson to continue to play their brand of clubs, but his contract with Yonex remains safely in place, as do his arrangements with companies such as Aberdeen Asset Management and Lexus.
There is also a new clothing line of his own boosting a long-standing arrangement with the Peter Scott knitwear company, while further course-design deals -- 10 of his designs are already in play -- are imminent despite his dropping from 57th in the world rankings at the end of 2007 to 121st at the end of 2008.
When you ask Guy Kinnings, Montgomerie's personal manager and a senior vice-president at IMG, if that little lot adds up to more than $7 million a year, he does a few mental calculations. He then makes note of extras along the lines of appearance fees and magazine and newspaper columns and says, "North of that, I would think." In other words, it could be nearly $8.5 million or more.
"Monty," as they call him in the United Kingdom, doesn't have to try that hard when it comes to keeping sponsors happy; he is a natural.
"Monty is Monty," says two-time Ryder Cup teammate Paul Casey, laughingly capturing this one-off of a man to perfection. "He is never less than good value. We all know how disappointed he was not to make the Ryder Cup, but he's got so much going for him -- and that includes a fantastic new bride, Gaynor [whom he married in April, 2008]."
As a pro-am companion, the Scot is in a league of his own. Give Montgomerie, say, a party of Korean or Chinese CEOs -- European Tour officials always send him out with the people who matter most -- and he will bridge the language gap via golf. He will notice everyone's shots and, where necessary, gently chide someone on his bunker play before giving him a demonstration which will be as humorous as it is helpful. What's more, he'll make his playing partners feel that he is every bit as interested in the team's performance as they are.
In a reference to how Monty is always part of a key pro-am group, Kinnings says quite simply that the European Tour "is smart enough and savvy enough" to make the best possible use of its assets. "Monty will always do a good job on their behalf."
Speaking for himself, Monty explains his attitude toward playing in pro-ams.
"The days when a player could go out for a pro-am and not talk to any of his partners -- something which used to happen -- have long since gone. Especially in the current economic climate, you have got to be prepared to give more of yourself, not just for your own sake but for the sake of the Tour as a whole."
In terms of detonating eye-catching news for the papers and thus increased airtime for his many sponsors, Monty is again head and shoulders above the rest.
After 20 years' of "training" in the media center, he is as sharp as the blade on an old wedge. While at the other end of the spectrum are those miserable individuals who play golf for a living and chunter on about how they are struggling with their irons, or whatever. (Did no one ever tell them that golf writing has moved on since the days when an in-depth account of how a player is hitting the ball was enough to grip the attention of readers?)
On more than one occasion, Monty has ignored interview-room protocol by opening with the suggestion that the writers can forget whatever it was he shot that day. "It was pretty boring," he might say. "All I did was hit fairways and greens. What would you like me to talk about instead?"
At this year's British Masters -- a tournament played at the Belfry immediately after the Ryder Cup, in which the Europeans lost to the Americans for the first time in nine years -- everyone was waiting for someone to let rip on the subject of Nick Faldo's captaincy at Valhalla. (In the eyes of the British press, a captain always gets the blame for a loss.) Earlier in the day, Monty had advised your correspondent that he was not going to be caught out on this score. He would be keeping his thoughts to himself.
He came in for his interview at two o'clock and, at least for the first couple of minutes, stuck rigidly with his good intentions. At that point, though, these were thrown into disarray by a double-barrelled question.
He was asked a) if he had felt for Faldo's team and b) if he felt for Faldo himself.
Monty began by saying that that he could not feel more for the players.
"I've been on three beaten sides as against five winning ones and I know exactly what it's like to be on the plane coming home when things have gone wrong. Anything you might have done as an individual fades when the team has lost."
That said, he made to address the second part of his question, the part relating to how much he felt for Faldo. There was a momentary pause before he said he was sorry but he could not answer it.
Not too much in the way of further pressing was needed. A simple follow-up question as to whether or not Faldo had gotten the best out of the Europeans elicited the answer "Probably not" -- and opened the floodgates. Monty's main gripe was that Faldo had got the Sunday singles lineup all wrong.
It goes without saying that there were Monty headlines the next day.
Which brings us to the point. No matter how he plays on the course, in the UK at least, Montgomerie would have had more column inches devoted to him in the national papers in the past 12 months than Robert Karlsson, a very worthy winner of the 2008 European Tour Order of Merit.
As much as anything, Montgomerie has a good business brain.
Take what he said -- and this was long before the credit crunch began in earnest -- when someone suggested he had the golfing engine of a Rolls-Royce. "You mean a Lexus," he replied cheerfully. It was a much-publicized aside, and one which no doubt paved the way for an immediate extension to his role as a Lexus ambassador.
Monty fell out with Callaway some years ago, with the most oft-reported accusation that he would remove his Callaway cap at the first breath of wind. However, there are plenty of other sponsors who, though they might cross swords with the player from time to time, still see him as one in a million.
When Tiger Woods and General Motors cut short their sponsorship arrangement a few weeks ago, Kinnings explained that Tiger was a one-off and that other golfers would not need to quake in their boots as they worried about what might happen to their contracts.
Kinnings added that IMG was having no trouble selling top players in each of the individual countries, with the same applying to any outstandingly gifted youngster. He did, though, believe that players would need to be prepared to step up to the plate and make sure they were giving "good value for money."
In which connection, he inevitably cited Harrington and Montgomerie.
"Monty", he said, "really has something to offer a sponsor. In the case of Yonex, he has achieved great things on their behalf. They have been able to work with an iconic sportsman who generates strong media interest and exposure for them."
Much the same, he said, applied to Aberdeen Asset Management, a company who was happy to expand on Montgomerie the Ambassador.
"Since 2007," said Jill Maxwell, their spokesperson, "Monty has hosted a number of our golf days, occasions on which we have entrusted him with some of our most important clients from around the world. His global appeal, along with his golfing experiences and his ability to make each of our guests feel incredibly welcome, is entirely the right mix. Our clients really enjoy themselves in his company."
Lucinda Rivers, who runs Montgomerie's charity, a new Glasgow-based cancer hospital in honor of his late mother, explains that the player "grasps concepts. A lot of the players I have worked with don't understand what goes into being an ambassador, but he does. If he takes on something like this, he is wholly committed to it."
To give an example of a man who does not always grasp concepts in quite the same way, you have only to look at Sandy Lyle, a fellow Scot who remains one of the most popular men ever to have played the game.
After he and his son had been flown out at Ballantine's expense to be an ambassador at their early-season tournament in South Korea in 2008, Lyle unblinkingly noted at his press conference that the tournament was too far from home. It was not fair, he said, to expect rookie professionals to pay out for so much travel.
Montgomerie, on the other hand, lightens many an off-course occasion.
It was shortly before the Ryder Cup, at a newspaper company day at the prestigious London Club, that I was detailed to conduct a question-and-answer session with Scotland's favorite golfer.
A thank-you note which came my way a day or so later referred to Monty's "delicious flirtation with indiscretion."
What happened at the end of that Q&A session would almost certainly have stuck in the letter-writer's memory.
As the audience came up with questions of their own, one gentleman asked me which captain -- between Paul Azinger and Faldo -- would have the edge in terms of repartee at the match. I suggested that judging from what we had seen of the two of them together so far, both as television commentators and in a handful of pre-Ryder Cup conferences, Azinger would win hands down. So much so, I added with feigned concern, that we might all end up feeling sorry for Faldo.
Colin seized the moment.
"You might," he cried.
Lewine Mair is a contributor to ESPN.com's golf coverage and can be contacted at lewinemair@aol.com.