Colin Montgomerie has hit out at comments on the Ryder Cup made by his much younger playing partner at this weekend’s Irish Open – Rory McIlroy.
The Irish youngster, seen by many as a future star for many tournaments for the European team, said ahead of this week’s event at Baltray that the biennial battle with USA is more like an exhibition compared to some of the other events he has his eyes on.
Celtic Manor in Wales will host the 2010 Ryder Cup, with many believing McIlroy a shoo-in to take part, but the player says he is not going to go out of his way to make the team if it looks like he is going to miss out on automatic qualification.
"It's not a huge goal of mine," the Northern Irish youngster said on the eve of the Irish Open first round. "It's an exhibition at the end of the day. In the big scheme of things it's not that important an event for me.
"If I play well enough [to qualify] I play well enough. And if I don't, then so be it."
Montgomerie, who will captain Europe in Wales, will be playing alongside McIlroy and defending champion Richard Finch at The Irish Open on Thursday. There could be plenty of interesting chatter between them after the Scot reacted adversely to McIlroy’s words.
"It's not an exhibition and it never will be," he argued. "It's a very unique, special event and much more nerve-wracking than a major.
"When you play in it you want to be there again and again."
But Montgomerie was quick to add that he has not discussed the matter with the 20-year-old and does not want the media to paint a picture of a brooding row between the duo.
"Please don't say that Monty and Rory are having a war here. I haven't said that. I haven't heard what Rory said, so please don't start a big war."