Pack closes in on Monty
Colin Montgomerie was today battling to hold on to the lead on the second day of the American Express Championship in San Francisco.
Montgomerie, fresh from victory in the Dunhill Links championship on Sunday, held a three-shot lead overnight after a stunning opening 64, six under par, at Harding Park.
That lead was down to just one within minutes of play getting under way on a damp, misty morning however, former Open champion Mark Calcavecchia carding birdies at the second and third to improve to five under par.
Montgomerie’s playing partner Sergio Garcia was also quickly in on the act, holing from eight feet for birdie on the first to improve to four under.
It was not long before Montgomerie was also in red figures for the day, a birdie from 20ft on the par three third taking the 42-year-old Scot to seven under par and back into a two-shot lead.
The 45-year-old Calcavecchia, who won his first tournament for four years in the Canadian Open in September, picked up another birdie on the sixth to reduce Montgomerie’s lead to one shot again.
Garcia had birdied the fourth and seventh to also close to within one of the lead but a bogey on the eighth, a monstrous par three measuring 230 yards, dropped the Spanish star back to five under.
Also on five under was Garcia’s Ryder Cup team-mate David Howell, one of 11 players sharing second place overnight after a first round 67.
Howell, who won his first European Tour title for six years at the end of August, had birdied the first and seventh.
Tiger Woods had also birdied the first and recovered from a bogey on the second with another birdie on the third to lie four under, three behind Montgomerie.
New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, £85,000 ahead of Montgomerie in the Order of Merit, struggled to an opening 71 on Thursday but two early birdies lifted the US Open champion to one under par.
Meanwhile Australian Steve Elkington, one of the players Campbell beat en route to winning the World Match Play title at Wentworth last month, had withdrawn with a back injury. Elkington carded a three over 73 in the first round.
Montgomerie had been back to his accurate best in the first round, missing just four fairways and finding 16 of the 18 greens in regulation.
But he was unable to maintain that form today and a poor drive on the 10th cost him his first bogey of the week. From the heavy rough he was only able to advance his second shot some 85 yards, and from there hacked his third into a greenside bunker from which he took three to get down.
That meant there was now a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with Montgomerie joined on six under by Calcavecchia and Howell, the Englishman making a superb birdie on the eighth, only the fifth of the week so far.
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