Europe's elite plough lonely furrows

12 April 2012

Colin Montgomerie has made an appeal for Ireland's farming community to switch their attentions from the National Ploughing Championship to the Seve Trophy golf at the nearby Heritage course.

While a crowd in excess of 80,000 were at one of Europe's biggest agricultural shows only a tiny fraction of that figure watched Nick Faldo's Britain and Ireland - a team with no Irish in it - lose the opening fourballs 3-2 to Continental Europe.

"The sooner they finish the better - they can come round and support us," said Montgomerie after he and fellow Scot Marc Warren lost the top game three and one to Swedish pair Robert Karlsson and Peter Hanson.

Montgomerie, aware of the impact that a bigger gallery could have, added: "I'm serious. The atmosphere is limited. I get that size of crowd in a practice round in the evening and it's a shame.

"It's good quality golf and a great golf course, but we need the farmers to bring their wellies and get over here. This event has all the potential provided everyone shows up."

The Scot, referring to the number of top players eligible but unavailable for one reason or another, said: "Eleven alternates is clearly far too many. Two or three you can get away with."

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