Anticipation 'growing' for Monty

Colin Montgomerie

"Now it's here and it's very exciting and the anticipation is growing, hourly, now, as opposed to by the day. I personally, on behalf of my team look forward to Friday now. Friday can't come quick enough now for us all."

"I'm looking forward to the Welsh support. Most of the support out on the golf course are golf club members, and so therefore, they know the etiquette of the game and the sportsmanship of the game."     "Let's hope they [Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell] are formidable. It's untried in Ryder Cup play. They are both very confident individuals, and I think that's a huge plus when it comes to playing together that both are confident, and confident of their own ability and confident of their partner's ability."

"I know what Padraig Harrington can do, and that's why he was picked. He's had three eagles out there today already. He's playing the best golf of my team out there, and I feel the criticism early on before the Ryder Cup is very unjustified."

Rory McIlroy

"You know, once I met Tiger, even before last year or whatever, you sort of realise that he just is a normal guy. He's probably the best player that's ever lived, and likely the greatest player that's ever played the game."

"But you watch so much golf on TV, and you see so many things and you watch so many highlights; and I suppose every time if I'm thinking back, you know, watching Tiger winning the Masters in '97 and winning four majors in a row in 2000 and 2001, you sort of don't really believe it. You put him on such a high pedestal, and then you meet the guy and you realise that he's obviously an unbelievable guy, but he's just a normal guy." Padraig Harrington

"There's no doubt Paul Casey and Justin Rose are good enough to be on our

Ryder Cup Team. They are good players. But unfortunately for the five

of us that didn't make the team, it was always going to come down to

that. In other years, these picks would have gone to like Robert

Karlsson, is a fine player and really that's who the picks would have

gone to."

"This year we had a lot of players who didn't make the team, and as I

said, all five of us could give you a list as long as our arm about why

we should have been picked. It really just comes down to personal

preference, the team captain, how he sees it. Thankfully, maybe with

the balance of the team, the six rookies and with the age profile of the

team, it certainly swung in my favour."

"For a professional golfer now, you have four majors, Race to Dubai,

FedExCup and Ryder Cup in some years and you're trying to peak for every

one. Any athlete will tell you, now that we are going to be

Olympians we can call ourselves athletes, you can't compete that many

times a year."