Monty makes the right impression
Colin Montgomerie arrived at St Andrews today determined to shake a monkey, as well as a Tiger, off his back.
So often Montgomerie has been halfway to heaven after the second round in The Open championship only to end up in the sort of despair so unique to this son of Troon that it should be sewn into a special black tartan.
In 2001 he led at the beginning of the third round only to slump to 13th. In 2002 he was two behind and then shot a third round 84. And last year he was three behind at half-time only to finish 25th.
Many chances, none taken.
Somehow, this opportunity, second albeit four shots behind Tiger Woods at the start of play, meant even more to a man who so recently went through the trauma of an acrimonious divorce from ex-wife Eimear and the trials of the ’Jakarta affair’ when he incorrectly placed his ball after a rain break, prompting his peers to question his integrity.
How much it meant could be gauged from the two-and-a-half hours he spent on the putting ground before his round began, honing the stroke of his new, heavier putter, which had served him so well in the first two rounds.
It was a day for meticulous attention to detail, an afternoon when the St Andrews breeze was a good deal more capricious than it had been.
It was also an afternoon when 40,000 spectators were determined to carry Montgomerie along on a magic carpet of affection.
’C’mon Colin.’ ’We love you Monty,’ they cried and the American reporter who had asked Montgomerie whether he thought he or Woods would get the most support must have been rueing his naivety.
Montgomerie’s feet barely touched the turf down the first fairway such was the decibel level.
His 15 foot birdie putt trundled just by, another at the second did the same. The latter was significant, not because of Monty’s consistency, but because it came seconds before Woods missed from five feet to record his first bogey for 22 holes.
Psychologically it was Woods’ first sign of weakness in a tournament which otherwise many reckoned he was back to the player he was in 2000.
Another came at the 412 yards par four when the Tiger line ended at the bottom of a gorse bush in an unplayable lie and was forced to take a penalty drop. Another bogey and suddenly only two shots separated them.
Maybe it was the white polo shirt Woods had chosen for the third round, rather than the clinical black or the power red, but the aura was missing and the words of Montgomerie were beginning to look a little wide of the mark.
“If Tiger Woods plays the way Tiger Woods can play around this type of golf course then I would have to agree with a number of players that second place is what we’re doing,” said Montgomerie after the second round. “We are watching here a unique golfer on a unique golf course.”
Actually, for much of this afternoon we were witnessing Montgomerie with his business head on as it rarely has been at The Open, staring the Tiger intimidation flush in the eye. His fans have certainly waited long enough for that.
The fact is that Montgomerie has never won a tournament when Woods has been in the field.
In competition, other than the Ryder Cup, Monty has always appeared intimidated.
That was the case in 1997 when Montgomerie insisted greater experience would be a factor when he was paired with Woods in the third round of the US Masters.
He went on to shoot 74, while Woods returned a 65. Twenty-four hours later Montgomerie shot an 80 while Woods went on to win his first major by 12 strokes.
The experience was all Montgomerie’s and all painful.
The action was tighter but the result the same at the Deutsche Bank Open in 2002 when Woods won at the third hole of a play-off.
And while Monty has been on the winning pairing three times against Woods in Ryder Cup action, it is a recognised fact that the world’s greatest golfer is not a team player, especially when paired as ludicrously as last September in Detroit with Phil Mickelson.
All that looked so much history when Woods once more found gorse at the 352-yard par four ninth and was forced to scramble a par while Montgomerie recorded his second birdie of the day.
Montgomerie insists it is not “fun.”
“This is a job of work and it’s business, very much business,” he says.
But “fun” was on the agenda when another birdie arrived at the 10th, this time courtesy of a superb iron to four feet to cut Woods’ lead to one.
And suddenly the strains of a piper could be heard in the distance while the saltires began to flutter ever more jauntily.
Montgomerie may or may not win his first major here at St Andrews – but at that moment I swear a monkey jumped from his shoulders.
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