Monty's majors hopes wobbling
Colin Montgomerie’s participation in next month’s US Open and July’s British Open over his home course Royal Troon is resting on a knife-edge.
By finishing 16th in the British Masters on Sunday – his first tournament since his marriage break-up – Montgomerie fell from 45th to 49th in the world rankings.
He needs to be in the top 50 to be exempt for golf’s next two majors. The cut-off point for the British Open is in two weeks and for the US Open three weeks.
But the Scot says he is not concerned by such matters at his time of personal troubles.
“If I’m not in them I’m not in them – I will have a week with my children,” said the 40-year-old Scot. “It’s furthest from my mind right now.”
Barry Lane’s victory at the Forest of Arden has lifted him from 209th to 133rd in the new ranking list, while Tiger Woods’ third-place finish in the US Tour’s Wachovia Championship – his first event since the Masters – has widened the gap over Vijay Singh at the top.
Singh had won the previous two tournaments and had a chance to overtake Woods by the end of this month.
Rankings: 1 Tiger Woods 13.27pts, 2 Vijay Singh 10.69, 3 Ernie Els 9.56, 4 Davis Love 8.26, 5 Phil Mickelson 7.63, 6 Mike Weir 7.00, 7 Jim Furyk 6.27, 8 Padraig Harrington 5.42, 9 Kenny Perry 5.05, 10 Stuart Appleby 4.97.
Others: 14 Darren Clarke 4.45, 21 Fredrik Jacobson 3.30, 26 Thomas Bjorn 3.05, 27 Paul Casey 2.99, 38 Sergio Garcia 2.60, 47 Miguel Angel Jimenez 2.34, 49 Colin Montgomerie 2.26, 51 Ian Poulter 2.22, 53 Alex Cejka 2.14, 56 Justin Rose 2.06, 58 Brian Davis 2.04, 59 Bernhard Langer 2.02, 66 Phillip Price 1.90, 69 Lee Westwood 1.84, 79 Mathias Gronberg 1.66, 81 Luke Donald 1.65, 82 Niclas Fasth 1.65, 95 Raphael Jacquelin 1.44, 99 Alastair Forsyth 1.40, 100 David Howell 1.38
