Confident Monty finds star quality

Lewine Mair, The Telegraph, 1 October 2005

Colin Montgomerie was in a class of his own at St Andrews in the second round of the Dunhill Links Championship. While his fellow professionals were at war with the buffeting winds, the Scot unfurled one easy swing after another on his way to a record-equalling 65.

It was, as he enjoyed being told, more than eight shots below the day's average of 73.4. At nine under par for the tournament, he was one shot ahead of Kenny Ferrie, the player to whom, somewhat controversially, he failed to give a place in his GB and Ireland side for last week's Seve Trophy match at the Wynyard.

Montgomerie had been itching to tee up at the Old Course this week. "I picked up so much confidence here in July," he said, in a reference to his second place finish behind Tiger Woods in the Open. "For a first time, I felt able to play chess with the course, get the ball round. I used to make mental errors, but after 17 years of Dunhill championships and Opens I'm not making them any more."

Play was often at a standstill yesterday and, when David Frost and Jodie Kidd, his pro-am partner, both emerged from fairway bunkers at the fifth towards the tee rather than the green, there was the feeling that the field were actually moving backwards. Once again, the regular course rangers looked on in horror.

Like the European Tour personnel, they spend most of their year trying to keep golfers on the move. "Then this tournament comes along," said one of them, "and people are back thinking that it's OK to take forever."

Montgomerie's party took six hours precisely. As he said, it would have been an issue had he been expecting to whip round in 4½ hours. Instead, he always knew that he was going to be out there all day and programmed himself accordingly.

His start was one to savour - three successive birdies, a par, an eagle and another birdie. For the eagle at the 568-yards fifth, he hit a drive and three-iron to 40ft, a putt for which he was nicely warmed up after holing 10-footers at the first and second.

The weather was beginning to deteriorate, with gusts of up to 40 mph. While Montgomerie was playing the seventh, he met up with Paul Casey, on the 11th, and received warning how Casey's ball had actually moved a couple of inches in the wind on the 10th green.

There was talk of play being suspended, but that never happened and Montgomerie, winner of seven Order of Merits, came home in a one under par 35. At the 17th he manufactured the deftest of chips from the path beyond the green on his way to a par. At the last he hit his second to 12ft to give himself the chance of a 64 and the outright record.

To the disappointment of all those hanging over the railings and looking down from the roof-tops, he did not give the putt quite enough.

The overall score apart, the finest aspect of the Scot's performance on such a difficult day was that he never once went over par. The film star Michael Douglas, his pro-am partner, was in awe. "This," said Douglas, "will be one of those rounds I will always remember. I love the fact that I'll be able to tell my kids that I played alongside Colin on the day he shot 65 over the Old Course."

Douglas's own golf was better yesterday. When it came to the 618-yards 14th where, admittedly, he was hitting from the forward tee, he matched Montgomerie's two blows to the edge of this mammoth green before taking three putts to his two.

Today Montgomerie moves to the more exposed Kingsbarns where only two players, Peter Hedblom and Jean-Francois Lucquin, yesterday succeeded in breaking 70.

Far from playing down the importance of this weekend, Montgomerie did what he used to do in his hey-day in going down the opposite route.

"This weekend is very important to me," he said. "I'm after Order of Merit points, world ranking points and Ryder Cup points. I want to play in at least one more Ryder Cup and especially next year's in Ireland."

To think that there was a time last year when he wondered if he would ever be any good again.