Colin Montgomerie has made some famously furious appearances in front of the press during his long and superb career, but he was all smiles and good wishes at Fancourt on Wednesday ahead of the Volvo Golf Champions.

“It’s the start of the year and my first time in this part of the world and it’s fantastic, we’re all saying the same thing. I’m looking forward to a new start with a new bag of Callaway clubs, I’m excited about this week, I feel like a rookie again. It’s a fresh start and a new year,” Montgomerie enthused.

The 48-year-old Scot has a top-class record of 31 European Tour wins and a particular affinity for links courses, having designed his own at Carton House in Ireland. Which makes Montgomerie a voice to be heard when it comes to rating the Fancourt Links after his two practice rounds on the par-73 layout.

“It’s an exceptional course, I believe it’s ranked number one in South Africa and therefore number one in Africa. And deservedly so, having played it twice now. I haven’t experienced the tournament pins yet, they’ve been in areas where we’re not going to hit to in the tournament and I’m looking forward to a stiffer challenge.

“It’s a great design, an exceptional challenge and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s in a similar style to Carton House – the bunkers are very severe, it’s a half-shot penalty if you land in them with their riveted faces. There’s a lot of sand and it’s soft, which is more difficult than if it was firm. The run-offs are also similar … all credit to Gary Player and the design team,” Montgomerie said.

The Ryder Cup legend dominated European golf in the 1990s, winning seven successive Orders of Merit, but he admitted the advent of technologically-boosted big-hitters has had a devastating effect on his winning chances these days.

“To compete with the longer hitters, I’ve got to putt very well because they have a huge advantage. Nicolas Colsaerts [in the Fancourt field] is probably the longest in the world and I’m giving away 60 yards to him. Where he, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen can go in with a five-iron, for me it’s a three-wood on to firm greens. So it’s a huge advantage for them – if they hit it straight and can find their ball off the tee,” Montgomerie said.

“But I hit the ball well today from tee to green, my irons were good enough and I drove safely. But I’ve never won anything without putting well, so I’ve got to hole out from inside 10 feet.”

Adding to the advantage of the longer hitters at Fancourt is the fact that there are five par-fives and only four par-threes and, with the blazing sun on Wednesday drying out the course, there should be more and more run on the fairways.

Montgomerie has been paired with young Tom Lewis, who is not the longest hitter off the tees, for Thursday’s first round and is looking forward to the experience.

Colsaerts will be playing with Holland’s Joost Luiten and Montgomerie is relieved he won’t have to experience what happened to him the last time he partnered the Belgian.

“I was asked to do a drug test and both Nicolas and Stephen Gallacher just burst out laughing. They said it was for performance-enhancing drugs and I said it was a complete waste of time and I wanted my money back if that was the case. I’m hitting the ball 280 metres and they’re hitting it 340,” Montgomerie laughed.

Ernie Els is certain that the eight-man South African contingent will have a big advantage playing on home ground in the European Tour’s Volvo Golf Champions event teeing off at Fancourt on Thursday.

The winners-only invitation event has been moved from Bahrain to George due to political unrest in the Middle East, and the South Africans are licking their lips at the prospect of playing for two million euro on a course they all know well, Fancourt being one of the country’s premier tracks.

Els spends his Christmas holiday every year in nearby Herold’s Bay, while Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace both come from the Southern Cape and Retief Goosen spends plenty of time here too. Hennie Otto, Garth Mulroy, Thomas Aiken and Charl Schwartzel also have plenty of experience of playing on the Links.

“Local knowledge will definitely come into play here, especially when the sea-breeze picks up, and it’s definitely an advantage for myself, Retief and Louis because we’re here on vacation every year and we know the course,” Els said at Fancourt on Wednesday.

And if there’s anyone determined to make that home-ground advantage count, it’s Els, who is coming off a poor year and played several rounds at Fancourt during December.

“We’ve been coming down here now for the last 22 years, so it’s home for us as a family. I played all of December here, so I have a good feel for the course. Knowing the course is also a big advantage,” Els said.

The three-time major winner has dropped out of the top 50 on the world rankings – he’s currently 71st – and it was his victory in the 100th staging of the South African Open in December 2010 that earned him his spot in the 35-man field.

The awful prospect of not qualifying for the Masters looms large for the South African legend, and The Big Easy is certainly not happy with the situation.

“You lose your sense of humour when you’re not putting well and I’d like to get that back. If I can get the putter working, then you’ll see me smiling more.

“But my work ethic and determination are more than ever. The last season was dismal and I really want to turn things around and win some tournaments.

“A lot of people are reminding me that, at the moment, I’m not in the Masters. I know where I stand in the rankings, I don’t need reminding. But I’ve got a couple of months to rectify it – you don’t want to be asking for an invitation to Augusta, so I’ll just have to qualify!” Els said.

Jamie Elson failed to chase down the home town favourite, but he nevertheless earned huge respect for the scintillating 63 he fired in the final round of the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on Sunday.

Elson’s brilliant nine-under-par round on the tough East Course saw him vault to within one shot of eventual winner Branden Grace, and the Englishman said it was the mental side of his game that had made all the difference.

“For some reason I felt really relaxed today. It’s funny because I’m normally quite anxious and yesterday I was so edgy out there. I can’t put my finger on why I felt so different today, it must be something that worked in my mental preparation, but I just had this calmness about me,” Elson said.

Elson eagled the 504-metre par-five 18th hole, changing the leaderboard dramatically as he shot up to 16-under-par, just one stroke behind Grace, who showed remarkable composure to keep it that way through his last nine holes.

“To close like that was quite something, it was just one of those days when everything went right for me. I took driver off the tee and leaked it right. I actually thought it was in the bunker. But I caught a decent lie in the rough and had a great yardage for my hybrid, which my caddie calls my ‘magic-stick’.

“It just came out perfectly and pitched on the front of the green, and the reaction of the crowd told me it was pretty close to going in,” Elson said.

As it turned out, Elson’s heroics did not leave Grace much room to move, although the man who sank a 40-foot birdie putt to just earn his tour card never thought he would come that close to winning.

“We just have to see what happens now but I hope I get top five because that will get me into Abu Dhabi in two weeks,” Elson said after his round, more than two hours before Grace finished only one stroke ahead.

So Abu Dhabi is where Elson is headed (he finished fourth there last year), although it could so easily have been Fancourt, where all the previous year’s European Tour winners will line up in the lucrative Volvo Golf Champions tournament from Thursday.