Monty relishes round with Woods
For the fourth time in five years Colin Montgomerie goes into the third round of the British Open high up on the leaderboard.
But St Andrews 2005 is very different to Lytham 2001, Muirfield 2002 and Troon 2004. He is playing in the last group with Tiger Woods.
The last time they met on such a stage was the Masters eight years ago. Neither will ever forget it, although Montgomerie probably wishes he could.
He thought his experience might count for a lot against a 21-year-old playing in his first major as a professional. But he was the one who shot 74. Woods had a 65 and went on to win by 12.
Now the American is world number one and the holder of nine major titles, including the Open five years ago at the home of golf. And he leads by four.
Montgomerie will not draw much comfort from the recent Open experiences when he has been in the hunt.
Leader at the halfway stage at Lytham, he played the final 36 holes in 10 strokes more and dropped to 13th.
At Muirfield he started 74-64 to be two behind, but on a wild Saturday afternoon he crashed to an 84. Not that Woods profited – he shot 81 and lost his chance to keep a Grand Slam alive.
Last year, on the links where he grew up, Montgomerie was three behind following two 69s. But much as his home crowd willed him to his first major victory he could not respond, finishing down in 25th.
Perhaps surprisingly, though, the 42-year-old Scot was in relaxed mood when asked about the prospect of taking on Woods head-to-head again.
He knows he will have the crowd support again and he knows they will nearly all be expecting Woods to stay in total command. Montgomerie, much though he would love to strike gold, has nothing to lose.
And, having been 81st in the world at the start of the year, just to be in this position is probably more than he dared to hope for then.
First, though, last night Montgomerie praised the galleries for staying around to help him set up his clash with Woods.
Many of the 40,000 crowd might have thought of heading away from St Andrews after witnessing first Jack Nicklaus’ farewell and then the completion of a 67 from Woods that took him clear of the field.
But Montgomerie then birdied three of the last five holes for a 66 that took him to seven under par.
“It was great that the crowd stayed for another one-and-a-half hours. I pay a lot of respect to them for helping me home.
“I am not going to say it will be fun (today). Everybody who says that playing with Tiger goes and shoots 80. This is not fun – it’s a major and business. Very much business.
“I look forward to it – the crowd, the whole atmosphere. I will enjoy watching him and the fact that the crowd are very much behind me here.
“If Tiger does stumble at all – a couple under for him – that gives us a chance. I am just the leader of a very strong pack and one of us is going to shoot low. But if he plays well I would have to go along with those who think we are playing for second. He has a four-stroke cushion.
“If I putt as well as I did yesterday I have a chance. I am pretty relaxed now. At Lytham I missed from five feet on the last hole of my second round and felt deep down I was not going to win. Yesterday I holed a 12-footer and it’s a big, big difference.”
The biggest confidence-booster Montgomerie has is the 2002 Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Heidelberg.
Even with a serious back problem he and Woods ended up tying for the title. Montgomerie lost the play-off and has still to win a tournament in which Woods is playing, but the way he played that day must fill him with hope that this Open is not over yet.
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