Monty shows no sign of letting up
Colin Montgomerie continued his domination of the Volvo Masters at Valderrama today and moved within touching distance of his eighth European Order of Merit title.
After eight holes of the third round Montgomerie was four in front of nearest challenger Sergio Garcia and a massive seven clear of third-placed quartet Ian Poulter, Bradley Dredge, Paul McGinley and Jose Maria Olazabal.
New Zealander Michael Campbell, meanwhile, was 10 behind and with Montgomerie already holding amoney list lead of nearly £105,000 (€154,000) over the US Open champion the money list title looked in the bag.
The 42-year-old Scot, poised now for a return to the world’s top 10 only nine months after standing 83rd in the rankings, resumed two ahead of Garcia and Poulter.
But in a mirror image of his first two rounds he birdied the first and third holes, making putts of five and 10 feet.
The carbon copy of the second round continued when he added another birdie at the long fourth and that took him to a majestic 12 under par.
Even when he missed the green at the 350-yard eighth – the hole where he pitched in for eagle on the opening day and made birdie on his return – he saved par with a 10-foot putt.
Garcia birdied the fourth and fifth himself, but then was in trouble at the seventh and bogeyed, while Poulter, who beat the Spaniard in a play-off a year ago, parred the first five, but then bogeyed the short sixth and eighth, where he went over the green from the guarding bunker.
McGinley made the biggest move – or at least he did once Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, having improved from two over and five under, ran up a quintuple bogey 10 on the long 17th.
The Dubliner had four successive birdies from the third, turned in 31 and then picked up another shot at the 547-yard 11th.
| Related Stories: |
|
