The University was delighted today to award an honorary degree to Scotland's greatest golfer Colin Stuart Montgomerie.

Colin won a golf scholarship to University in Houston Texas, where he obtained a degree in Business Studies in between playing a lot of golf. At that time he represented Scotland as an amateur, and he won the Scottish Amateur Championship in 1987, having represented Great Britain in 1985 and 1987 in the Walker Cup

Following his successful amateur career, he turned professional in 1988, and quickly became hugely successful. He was the leading golfer in the European Order of Merit for seven consecutive seasons beginning in 1993 and has won over 30 championships throughout the world.

The University of Glasgow, is proud of its association with Colin Montgomerie. Two of his Uncles have graduated in Medicine here and Colin, personally, has generously contributed funding to research in both of Scotland's major disease areas of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Most recently he agreed to be the Patron of our appeal to install the first Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner dedicated to cardiovascular research in Scotland. The appeal was called "Bypassing the Bypass" to highlight the need to detect coronary heart disease at as early a stage as possible in order to avoid the need for surgery.

Not only did Colin make a substantial personal donation to the appeal, he was the celebrity who launched the project at a very successful public meeting and, thereafter, continued to support our fundraising initiatives.

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

First published: 3 December 2004