Seven-time European number one, and the towering inspiration behind three successive European Ryder Cup victories, Colin Montgomerie has been praised for his golfing brilliance as well as vilified for his on-course sullenness. Yet 'Monty' has learned to take such matters in his stride, despite the break-up of his marriage and tabloid intrusion into his life. A perfectionist at heart, his uncompromising attitude to failure remains both his best, and possibly most misunderstood asset. Someone who hates to lose more than he loves to win, Monty is a true golfing maverick who makes headlines whatever he does.

Dale Concannon, author of the Sunday Times bestseller Nick Faldo: Driven, gets under the skin of this fascinating player. From his early years growing up at Royal Troon, where his father was club secretary, to sinking the winning putt in the Ryder Cup at Valderrama in 1997, from the battle of Brookline in 1999 and despair at the US Open, to leading triumphantly from the front at the K Club in 2006, Monty unravels the man behind the moniker, and is the true story of this most charismatic of golfers.