Colin Montgomerie shows no bitterness as Tiger Woods congratulates Paul McGinley on Ryder Cup captaincy Tiger Woods was the latest big name to send his congratulations. I've gotten to know Paul well over the last couple of years and have seen how popular he is with all Europe's players, he's going to make a great Ryder Cup captain. I can see Paul being a good rival to Tom [Watson] at Gleaneagles and our American team will need to give him every respect given he's also got such great record for Europe. "That's really nice of Tiger to say such lovely things - I hope I don't disappoint him," was McGinley's response. That's just typical of the support I've had from the moment I was confirmed as captain - even earlier if you think of the totally unsolicited backing I had from Rory [McIlroy], Luke Donald, Ian Poulter and others via Twitter. I've been besieged on the range here today and my phone is pinging with new text messages between every shot. I've replied to 150 already, and look at my phone - there's still 252 unanswered. The first man to congratulate the 46 year-old in person was Colin Montgomerie, the Scotsman who had such hopes of becoming Europe's first repeat captain since 1995 and whose dream it was to lead his continent on home soil. "There was absolutely no bitterness at all," he said. I was very flattered even to be considered again. They appointed the best man for the job. I appointed him for the Seve Trophy and he did a very good job - as he did twice as a vice-captain in the Ryder Cup. He's a very good man-manager and very good at assessing people's strengths. Montgomerie offered to help McGinley in "any way I can" and it will be intriguing to see if McGinley appoints him as a vice-captain. McGinley was keen to point out he felt no animosity towards Montgomerie for standing against him. He also extended the olive branch to Darren Clarke. The 2011 Open champion has grown apart from McGinley, but the latter offered encouraging words to his former room-mate in his quest to make the team. "I've known Darren forever," said McGinley. If a guy of that stature gets close to making the Ryder Cup team without actually qualifying he is going to be seriously considered for one of my wild cards. And I'm happy to say that publicly.