"Because if you need two gos to get it to that stage, well, I think my kids could come up with a better design than that in one afternoon."
/Things are going well at Gleneagles! But not to worry, Monty is on the case. Thanks to reader Nick for this Mike Aitken story on Lee Westwood blasting the 2014 Ryder Cup venue:
"You can't bring the Ryder Cup on to greens like this," rued Westwood after taking 31 putts in an opening round of 72, one under par. "They have a bit of rain and the best professionals in Europe can't hit the hole from two feet."
Asked what could be done to improve the sodden greens in Perthshire, Westwood replied: "They could rip them up and redo them. That's my fear for the Ryder Cup coming here. That they're just going to keep patching them up over the years. Hopefully they redo them.
"You build a course between two valleys in Scotland and you have to expect rain. So rain is not an excuse for having bad greens this week, I'm afraid. I've put down a green at home which is like concrete and we've had almost as much rain as they've had here.
"They need to dig them up and put the right construction underneath them."
Colin Montgomerie, the chairman of the championship committee, who missed himself from two feet on the 15th, didn't rule out future changes. "There's been an awful lot of rain and the greens are soft. I was practising here last week and they had to close the range a couple of times because of the rain. The weather has been awful and the greens have suffered. I think some greens drain better than these, there's no doubt about that. So we'll have to look into that in the future."Whoa Nellie!
Westwood also took a swipe at golf course architect David McLay Kidd, the Scottish designer of Bandon Dunes in Oregon and the Castle Course near St Andrews, who is in charge of the redesign on the PGA Centenary, including the controversial seventh hole. "I hope they don't use the designer who has had two gos at doing the seventh green," the Englishman cautioned. "Because if you need two gos to get it to that stage, well, I think my kids could come up with a better design than that in one afternoon."