Colin Montgomerie gave the
thumbs to the Seve Ballesteros Trophy and looked forward to playing in more of
the contests.
The inaugural tournament
between GB & Ireland and the Rest of Europe ended on Sunday at Sunningdale with
the European team, captained by Ballesteros, winning 13½-12½.
The tournament has not
quite got the rivalry of the Ryder Cup but GB & Ireland captain Montgomerie believes
it was a great success and that rivalry can be combined with friendship.
"I think everybody out
there realised that you can have competitiveness and rivalry with friendship,"
said the European number one.
"That's what has been taken
from this week. On the first tee it suddenly became a big tournament and a big
occasion and although there was friendly rivalry between the teams, it's great
to see that competition was friendly.
"That's the way golf was
meant to be played and should be played. That will be taken from this week and
on to further Seve Ballesteros Trophies."
Jose-Maria Olazabal said:
"It was a pity we had this bad weather and I hope we get better dates than this
one. I think it's going to be very important to help the players who might play
in the Ryder Cup and this tournament deserves good weather.
Personally Monty, who lost
2&1 to Seve in the singles, feels his putting is not what it should be: "I'm
slightly more concerned than I've ever been about my putting," he admitted. "Getting
the ball in the hole has always been the problem and I'll go home and try and
improve it.
"You can't afford to play
matchplay against someone of the calibre of Seve when you're putting as badly
as I am."
