Montgomerie in tribute to Clarke
Playing partner Colin Montgomerie was the one to make the sparkling start, but a dazzling finish by Darren Clarke has taken him into the halfway lead in the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.
And Montgomerie will be delighted if his Ryder Cup teammate now goes on to lift the first prize on Sunday.
As everybody in golf knows, Clarke’s wife Heather is battling cancer and it makes his display – rounds of 66 and 65 for an 11 under par total – all the more brilliant.
“Darren’s performance has been fantastic both days,” commented Montgomerie, seven behind after a 66. “He is playing as well as anyone I’ve seen in Europe this year and as well as I’ve ever seen him.
“Issues flood into your mind when you are leading. But he went forward and I wish him well. It would be fantastic if he can win. I’ll be second.”
Because of the number of tournaments he has missed Clarke is down in 30th place in the Ryder Cup table, but Montgomerie stated: “It would be a huge boost if he can make it. Any team without Darren Clarke is a weaker team.”
Thomas Bjorn, who had a joint best-of-the-day 64 and is still five adrift, added: “It’s remarkable. We see a lot of each other and golf is probably not the thing on his mind at the moment.
“He is one of the brighter talents we have – striking-wise one of the top three in the world. There’s Sergio (Garcia) and Tiger (Woods) and that’s about it.
“He can play golf a lot of players can only dream of and it’s nice to see him playing well.”
Clarke, who admits to operating on “auto-pilot”, could only watch and admire as Montgomerie, down on one over when they resumed, began birdie-birdie-eagle.
But the Ulsterman, who in chasing his first tour win on European soil since 2002 has twice finished runner-up on this course, calmly went about his work and then burst clear with three birdies in the last five holes.
He drove to the edge of the green on the 371-yard 14th and almost chipped in for eagle, birdied the next and then came close to a hole-in-one on the 205-yard 17th.
“I played really nicely,” he said. “I gave myself an awful lot of chances.”
The key to his play, he added, was ``trying to hit it as hard as I can. If the club is in the right position then I can do that and I am feeling quite comfortable with what I am doing.''
Clarke is three clear and, with all due respect to the chasing group, their names make him an even stronger favourite for the trophy. The world rankings of the next five on the leaderboard are 269th, 120th, 88th, 293rd and 377th.
Joint second are another Irish golfer, County Meath’s Damien McGrane, South African Charl Schwartzel and Swede Johan Edfors.
In 115 tour events McGrane has never finished higher than fourth. The 35-year-old had five successive birdies after the third to turn in 31 and after bogeying the short 11th picked up further shots at the 13th and 14th.
He was second on his own on the late tee, but bogeyed it and fell back alongside Schwartzel and Edfors, the Swede who shared the first day lead with Scot David Drysdale.
Edfors shot 69, while Drysdale’s 70 leaves him tied fifth with Welshman Jamie Donaldson.
Ernie Els, meanwhile, extended his record of not missing a halfway cut on the European tour to an incredible 76 events. But it was hard work.
Els, whose last early exit was a disqualification from the German Masters in 1999, was down in 80th place with seven holes of his second round to go. However, an eagle and two birdies lifted him out of danger and up to three under.
The South African star described his 245-yard five-wood to 10 feet on the long third – his 12th – as “the turning point” and he hopes that applies not just to this week, but for the rest of the season.
A week away from the Open at Hoylake – a course where he won as an amateur - Els is still trying to rediscover top form almost a year on from the sailing accident which required knee surgery.
“I’m trying to get a good score going and I’m so bloody close,” said Els. “It’s frustrating.
“I need a 65 to get my confidence going. I’d love to have a good weekend now and feel a little bit of pressure hitting shots when it really matters.”
Lee Westwood’s return to form – after seven successive missed cuts he was fourth in Ireland last week – continued with a 67 for six under. Defending champion Clark is on the same mark and Luke Donald just one further back.
Sergio Garcia is alongside Montgomerie on four under and Els has Retief Goosen for company on three under.
Of the remaining Irish, Paul McGinley and David Higgins, on two under par and one under par respectively, will be around for the weekend.
However, Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy, Graeme McDowell and Michael Hoey all missed the cut.
