It was hard to say what was gleaming more.
The freshly buffed up Alfred S Bourne Trophy or Colin Montgomerie's triumphant beam.
The big Scot had plenty of reasons to smile, of course. His successful defence of the Senior PGA Championship title in Indiana on Sunday gave the 51-year-old his third major title among the golden oldies and secured him a place in the PGA Championship among the young 'uns on the regular tour later in the season.
Monty's sporting life has certainly got going since he turned 50 and he's now doing things that he never did back in his pomp. Winning majors is one of those things, actually practising his game after a round is another.
"We finished early on the Saturday, about 4.30 pm, and I was three shots clear but not entirely happy," admitted Montgomerie, who was never known for battering away at buckets of balls on the range. "I wanted to try to and get some rhythm back into my swing to encourage me to sleep better at night. I was just trying to complete my back swing and if I did that and hit some good shots, I could go home happier. I wouldn't normally practice after a round, but the weather was good, and Alastair, my caddie, said, 'come on, let's sort this driving out'. He was right to do so."
Revelling in the opportunity to be competitive again, Montgomerie, the eight-time European No 1, was in carnival mood as he reflected on a triumph that was achieved with an eight-under tally over a rigorous course. "I think to average four 70s around here is as good as I could ever have done," he added. "If I had come here in 1997 when I was No 2 in the world and shot eight-under on this course, from these tees and in these conditions, I would have been thrilled. So, 18 years on, I am delighted to say to you that the game hasn't altered that much, in fact, not at all. So, I feel I'm playing as well as I did then. I really am. It's given me great confidence. I know there are some great players coming on to the Champions Tour over the next few years, that always happens. There is an influx of 48, 49-year-olds that are coming up to 50. You know that you get a few years where by you've got to get the job done. And this was one of them. Three ahead going into the last round? There's not many occasions that you have that opportunity and it's nice to have taken it. This has given me great confidence to go forward now with the rest of the year."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article