Is Colin Montgomerie simply teasing us or is he genuinely plotting a change of career course? The Scotsman, who has swept all before him in Europe for the past seven years, stunned his fans last week when he let slip that his retirement from the professional game might be imminent.
Never mind the hastily released denials to the contrary, speculation about what lies ahead for Montgomerie is now certain to mount in the leadup to the millennium British Open at St Andrews.
During a BBC interview, Monty, citing how Michael Jordan and Bjorn Borg bowed out at the top of their professions, said victory at the Home of Golf in July would leave him with nothing else to achieve.
He said: 'I've won the European thing now for a number of years . . . and then I would go and win the Open at St Andrews. Well, where do you go from there? There is only one place - and that is down.
'I've always said I would love to go out at the top and there is no better place to do it. To stand on the 18th green and say: 'That's it, I've had it with this game' and do something else . . . I really feel if that was the case I might just do that because there is nowhere else to go.' A retraction of sorts was not long in coming and Monty was soon whistling a different tune. 'What I was trying to say was that the British Open at St Andrews would be an emotional win for whoever is lucky enough to win that tournament,' he said. No disputing that.
One of Monty's most appealing attributes is his honesty. Curt and off-hand though he sometimes has been with the public and media, nobody could accuse him of shyness when it comes to speaking his mind.
What rankles Monty most of all is that for all his success on the fairways of Europe and as a strongman in his continent's Ryder Cup team during the 1990s, there remains one gaping gap in his resume - a Major championship.