NEVER in the history of sport have so few turned up to watch a handful of players competing for so much. Sam Torrance defeated his fellow Scot Colin Montgomerie 3 and 1 in the final of the European leg of the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf at The Oxfordshire yesterday and won a basic $300,000.
The match play tournament is a global event contested over 11 months at five courses on three continents and by his victory here Torrance goes into the grand final with three others, in Arizona in January. If he wins there he will pocket $1 million.
"I wasn't thinking of the money," Torrance said. "I'd have swapped today's result for last year's Order of Merit." The Scotsmen had a battle royal to determine Europe's number one last season with Monty prevailing at the death.
Yesterday afternoon Montgomerie, who won $150,000, gave the impression of being sick of the sight of The Oxfords hire. Last week he played in front of thousands; yesterday's audience was about 500.
"I didn't play well from my first drive to the last putt," Monty said. "It was not just that you were playing for so much money. There was a bit of tension. The worse I got the more confident Sam became."
Torrance won the 7th, 8th and ninth holes with an eagle and two birdies to a birdie and two pars and although he was in the water at the 10th and the 11th he kept a cool head.
The two Scotsmen had enjoyed a leisurely lunch, winning their semifinals in the morning in some style. By the time Torrance had disposed of Miguel Angel Jimenez 6 and 4, he had recorded six birdies; when Monty defeated Bernhard Langer 4 and 3 he had four birdies and an eagle.
"I didn't play badly," Jimenez said, and that spoke volumes for Torrance's form.
The Andersen Consulting is the world's richest tournament with prize money of $3.65 million. It did not have the greatest impact last year when Barry Lane won $1 million in the final in America on New Year's eve. This time the final has been put back to January 4th-5th. "At least I'll be able to have a few on New Year's eve," Torrance said.
On January 4th he plays Scott Hoch, the winner of the American leg, in the semi finals. In the other semi final Hisayuki Sasaki meets the winner of the international leg which will be played in July. That field of eight includes Greg Norman, Nick Price and Ernie Els.
Norman, the world number one, has agreed to play even though the sponsors declined his request to pay for the fuel for his private jet.
The field here was diluted by the absence of Ian Woosnam and Nick Faldo. Woosnam, asked to substitute for the injured Jose Maria Olazabal, declined, while Faldo asked for appearance money.
