European Tour Insider: Monty aims high in Scotland

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Scotland's Colin Montgomerie is heading back to his home country for this week's Johnnie Walker Championship.

Just weeks after The Open Championship, it's back to golf's roots for the European Tour this week -- back to bonnie Scotland for the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

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The venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup and a stage for a G8 Summit, this resort outside of Perth has been a regular destination for the Tour.

Colin Montgomerie effectively plays host. His title this week is Championship Chairman, a role he's been filling for a few years. He's had some good form at the venue, and would dearly love to find some now.

"It's not quite as good as I try to talk it up," Montgomerie said. "But I have to talk it up. You can't come to a tournament, thinking you're going to fail, but it's not great. The driving's not accurate enough, therefore the irons aren't good enough, so I'm putting pressure on the chipping and putting, and ... the whole thing just disintegrates."

The European Ryder Cup captain said this prior to the last event -- the KLM Open in Holland -- but having missed the cut the sentiments undoubtedly remain the same this week.

European Tour Podcast

Richard Kaufman and John Hawksworth review the KLM Dutch Open (won by Englishman Simon Dyson), preview the 2009 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, and offer a golf tip from Scotsman Callum Macaulay. Click to listen

He saw Frenchman Gregory Havret win at Gleneagles last year, and will hope to contend along with the likes of Jose Maria Olazabal, Michael Campbell and David Howell.

READY, JET-SET, GO

I guess you could term Terry Pilkadaris an unlikely entrant at Gleneagles, but it's a remarkable story.

The Australian was sitting on his couch in Melbourne on the Tuesday before the KLM Open. Then he got a phone call, arranged a flight, traveling for 25 hours, and he was able to tee it up on Thursday in Zandvoort.

"The last ten days I've sat on the couch and not done anything." He said "I've helped Monique with the kids, and given her a bit of a break, but I haven't played any golf at all, so the call up was just 'get up and go.'"

The late invitation worked out well for him, and he had a victory chance going into Sunday. The eventual top-10 finish secured his spot in Scotland, and that's all the more pleasing, because he will play in Switzerland next week and hadn't wanted another week off in either Europe or Australia prior to that.

LEANEY'S LEANING

Fellow Aussie Stephen Leaney will also be at Gleneagles this week just as he was a welcome guest in Holland.

The former Dutch Open champion has been struggling with vertigo. He was forced to side-step the game for six months last year. He returned to the PGA TOUR on a medical extension, but didn't play well enough to keep his card, and narrowly missed out on a Nationwide Tour place, too.

He's now changed his diet, cutting out dairy products and meat, and feels well. Indeed, Leaney says, his children feel healthier, too.

He told the Press Association's Mark Garrod that returning to Australia he felt better, and yet going back to his home in Dallas things got worse again.

Thomas Levet had also had a debilitating problem caused by vertigo.

"I spoke to Thomas and he fixed it through exercise," Leaney said. "David Duval had a problem too, and obviously for a golfer it's a serious thing."

CAMPILLO'S CAMPAIGN

Another receiving an invitation to the Johnnie Walker Championship is a player new to the professional ranks, Jorge Campillo.

The 23-year-old Spaniard was among the frontrunners after the opening day in The Netherlands, having been secured an invite by his managers at IMG.

He comes with an excellent reputation built at Indiana University, claiming nine NCAA titles. He was one of the world's top amateurs, boasting a perfect winning run in the latest Palmer Cup.

DYSON'S DUTCH DAY

Campillo, Leaney, Pilkadaris, and everyone else finished behind Simon Dyson last week. The Englishman claimed the KLM title for the second time, and the second time in a playoff.

A closing course-record equaling 63 propelled him to 15 under, and a birdie at the first sudden death hole saw him edge out Ireland's Peter Lawrie and the Swede Peter Hedblom. It was Dyson's third European Tour title.

He's had a recent change of diet like Leaney, but a totally different kind of change.

He'd partied in Spain for the first of the two weeks when regular European events took a break and the attention switched Stateside.

For the second, he opted for abstinence, cutting out alcohol and caffeine. He followed a fitness regime, too. "I feel great," Dyson said. "I feel strong. The best in the world is doing it, so the world 130th should be doing it. It paid off."

He had every intention to get back on the beers to celebrate victory, though.

SUMMERTIME SWEDES

That "break" for the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship afforded a couple of Swedes some nice down time, too.

Peter Hedblom went sailing. He took his motorboat to isolated islands north of Stockholm.

"I love being out on the sea on my boat, and being on an island for two weeks away from everything refreshes my mind," Hedblom said. "You can't do anything else there apart from relax."

Oklahoma State graduate Alex Noren opted for a week on the beach in Monaco: "I've never done that before," he said. "I've never been on a beach for seven days in a row. This was weird, but I listened to Robert Karlsson. He said 'Rest a little and then you practice harder.'"