Colin Montgomerie sets up Team Europe win in World Champions Cup

Helped by Montgomerie picking up a total of 21 points in the concluding two singles sessions at Feather Sound Country Club in Clearwater, Team Europe ran out comfortable winners over holders Team USA and Team International.

After the opening two days, Team Europe held a 1.5 lead over Team USA on 109.5 points, with Team International also in close contention on 106.5 points.

The singles on Sunday followed a break on Saturday for the pro-am, with Montgomerie being sent out first in both sessions by Team Europe captain Darren Clarke.

The Scot faced a stiff task against two major winners in Stewart Cink and Angel Cabrera but, rising to the occasion, he was the top points-scorer in their nine-hole match in both the morning and afternoon.

Stand-in Soren Kjeldsen secured victory

He birdied the first, second and fifth in the morning to record 10.5 points before matching that total in the afternoon, when Cink and Cabrera both opened with birdies but Montgomerie then reeled off three in a row from the third then added another one at the eighth.

Thomas Bjorn was the star of the morning session as he added 12.5 points to Team Europe’s tally while Clarke recorded 11.5 points in his match.

Soren Kjeldsen, a vice captain who stepped in for Alex Cejka in the afternoon, clinched Team Europe’s win after following five straight birdies to start against Steve Flesch and Y.E. Yang by making a sixth one at the eighth. Kjeldsen contributed 12 points in the concluding session, as did Bernhard Langer.

“This week we all got together with all of us, the players, the wives, the caddies and everything, and our way in Europe is, when we get into a team, there's no egos, there's no nothing,” said Clarke. “I know we've got two Hall of Famers (Montgomerie and Langer) in our group and on our team, but nobody's bigger than anybody else, and we all pull for each other and play for each other.”

Each player on the winning European team picked up $100,000 from a total prize pot of $1.35 milion.

“What a way to finish the year,” admitted Montgomerie. “It hasn’t been the best, I wasn’t able to play as much as I had wanted to due to health issues. I was thrilled therefore to be able to come back and play.

“It is always an honour to represent Europe and especially to win as a team on American soil. To play again as a team with friends and colleagues from Ryder Cups gone by was very special.”