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Montgomerie scrapes into Hall of Fame

Colin Montgomerie scrapes into World Golf Hall of Fame © Getty Images

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• Profile: Colin Montgomerie

Colin Montgomerie has been elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame by the slimmest of margins.

Montgomerie and Ken Schofield, head of the European Tour for nearly 30 years, were announced on Tuesday as the latest inductees. They fill out the 2013 class that includes Willie Park Jr, Fred Couples and Ken Venturi.

Montgomerie won the European Tour money list a record eight times. He received 51 per cent of the vote on the international ballot. That makes two inductees in this class - Couples was the other - who got in through a special provision. If no one gets the minimum 65%, the player with the most votes gets elected as long as it's more than 50%.

Meanwhile Montgomerie, who will be installed in Florida on May 6, has urged Europe's top golfers to show loyalty to the European Tour.

Ryder Cup hero Martin Kaymer, who sank the winning putt at Medinah, is the latest member of the victorious European team to join the PGA Tour.

He will split his time between the PGA and European Tours next season alongside world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter, Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson.

Among Europe's Ryder Cup victors at Medinah, only Paul Lawrie and Francesco Molinari will not have PGA Tour cards next season, a fact that concerns Montgomerie.

"You have to encourage those Ryder Cup players - I believe there is ten out of the 12 of that winning team that now play the game in America - and we have got to encourage those players to play more on the European Tour," Montgomerie told Sky Sports News.

"[It's] difficult because [golfers] are self-employed, and it is very difficult to tell someone to play somewhere else, but we have to encourage it somehow. Whether it is discouraging them to play in America or encouraging for Europe, but we have to do that for the safeguard of our own European Tour."

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