Monty will look after the Ryder Cup rookies

Colin Montgomerie has told Europe's Ryder Cup rookies: "You can lean on me".

Europe's number one golfer is concerned he is only one of two players currently in the top ten of the table with serious Ryder Cup experience.

But he will be happy to put a guiding arm around the shoulder of any of the rookies in the team and help steer them through the experience at Boston next month.

In the last Ryder Cup at Valderrama two years ago, it was Nick Faldo who played father figure to rookie Lee Westwood when the pair teamed up to make a formidable combination.

With Faldo unlikely to make the European team this time around, Monty is prepared to step in and take up the role vacated by Faldo.

"I would guarantee that happening," said Montgomerie. "I can say from experience that it is a different experience altogether and I would hope one of these rookie players has someone who has been there before to play with, because it is daunting.

"If I was a rookie and it was my first time playing in it then of course I would think about the Ryder Cup. But I don't think about it at this stage of the season because this is my fifth time now.

"We have a number of rookies in the team already. You look at the table as it stands now and there is only me and Jose-Maria Olazabal with Ryder Cup experience. Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke have played once each but everybody else in that top 10 is a rookie.

"To have six out of the ten who have never played before is an awful lot and we'll have to wait and see whether it is a good or bad thing - we'll have to wait and see how people can handle it.

"Some people would say it is a good thing and some would say you'd like more experience. I am on the fence until the Friday morning when we shall find out how people cope."

Montgomerie, who has won three tournaments on the European Tour already this season, insists he has other more pressing engagements than the Ryder Cup on his mind right now.

He is here in Sweden challenging for the Volvo Masters - which he won in its inaugural year in 1991 - as preparation for the USPGA.

"I have got a real goal here," he said. "I have won three times before on the European Tour but I have never won four times in a season and I would like to do that."