Colin Montgomerie, five behind with a round to go, pulled off his first win
for 19 months at St Andrews on Sunday - in a manner he never could have envisaged.
The 42-year-old Scot, who thought he would need a score in the mid-60s just to
have a chance of catching England's Kenneth Ferrie, became the third Scottish
winner of the Dunhill Links Championship in its five-year existence with
'only' a one-under-par 71.
That was because Ferrie, who pushed him into second place at the European Open
in July, crashed to a 77 in the wind and cold.
They were level with one hole to play - but whereas Ferrie three-putted for
the fifth time in the round, Montgomerie got down in two from left of the green
for a winning birdie.
The £449,741 first prize, achieved with a nine-under-par total of 279, now
gives Montgomerie - second to Tiger Woods in the Open on the same course three
months ago - a real chance to win his eighth Order of Merit title.
Montgomerie, who went through a painful divorce last year and saw his golf
game suffer badly for a while, moves up from fourth to second behind Michael
Campbell.
He also goes top of the Ryder Cup points table and has regained a place in the
world's top 20, just nine months after slumping to 82nd.
A relieved and delighted Montgomerie said: "That's the most important win of
my career - and for it to happen here makes it really special.
"It's been a long time, and you don't know if the next win is going to come.
"I won seven Order of Merits and I would not say it was easy, but it was
expected ... and then it stops.
"My life changed dramatically a couple of years ago, but I was looking
forward to coming back here so soon after the Open experience. I'm thrilled.
"He gifted me a couple, and I gifted him a couple - and he was unlucky at the
last. His drive kicked right ... if it hadn't he would have made three."
Ferrie said: "To have been five in front and Colin to just shoot 71 to win is
pretty poor.
"I needed to score 75 basically. They were tough conditions, but if you play
well it's not that tough. I struggled to keep it in play and I got punished.
"I do feel I let him win. It's my own fault - I have got nobody to blame but
myself."
Joint third were Ireland's Padraig Harrington, Dane Anders Hansen and Swedes
Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson. Of those, Stenson had the best chance but
bogeyed the 16th and 17th.
Montgomerie, back as the biggest money-winner in European Tour history with
more than £15million, took just nine holes to wipe out Ferrie's overnight lead -
going out in 33 against the former British boys champion's 38.
While he picked up birdies at the second, fifth and ninth, Ferrie three-putted
from just short of the sixth and double-bogeyed the 390-yard seventh - getting
into bunker trouble and taking three putts again.
Ferrie, who had also birdied the long fifth, did well not to find himself
behind after the ninth. He hit his drive into the gorse and took a penalty drop,
but an eight-foot putt gave him his par four.
Montgomerie could not keep the tide going his way, though. He three-putted the
short 11th and 348-yard 12th, the second of those for double bogey after driving
into a pot bunker.
Without doing anything special himself, Ferrie was three clear once more. But
he allowed that to become two by three-putting himself at the next - and when he
did it for the fourth time at the 15th they were level again, because
Montgomerie had made a 45-footer for birdie seconds earlier.
The celebrity pro-am competition was won by Stenson and American Rurik
Gobel, with Ferrie and former Olympic triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards in joint
second.
Collated final round scores and totals in the Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, Scotland
(Gbr and Irl unless stated, par 72):
279 Colin Montgomerie 70 65 73 71 (£449,741)
280 Kenneth Ferrie 68 68 67 77 (£299,825)
281 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 70 74 69 68, Anders Hansen (Den) 69 71 72 69,
Padraig Harrington 70 70 71 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 74 65 73 (£128,176
each)
282 Stephen Gallacher 74 73 67 68, Titch Moore (Rsa) 72 68 73 69, Darren
Clarke 68 75 69 70, Lee Westwood 71 71 69 71, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 71 66 72 73,
Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 69 68 71 74 (£59,815 each)
283 Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 72 70 73 68, Miles Tunnicliff 71 71 72 69, Soren
Kjeldsen (Den) 70 72 69 72
284 Simon Khan 69 72 74 69, Raymond Russell 73 70 72 69, Paul Broadhurst 70 71
73 70
285 David Carter 72 71 71 71, Gary Orr 72 71 70 72, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 68 75 70
72, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 70 73 69 73
286 Johan Axgren (Swe) 73 70 72 71, Peter Hanson (Swe) 73 71 71 71, Bradley
Dredge 68 73 73 72, Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 73 68 71 74, Paul Casey 68 70 72 76
287 Sam Little 73 71 71 72, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 69 76 72, Brian Davis 68 71
77 71, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 72 74 70 71, Rich Beem (USA) 67 73 75 72, Andrew
Marshall 70 70 74 73, Mark Foster 70 70 73 74, Scott Drummond 71 72 69 75,
Martin Doyle (Aus) 73 72 66 76
288 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 69 74 72 73, Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 70 78 72, David
Howell 67 74 76 71, Anthony Wall 69 72 73 74
289 Warren Abery (Rsa) 69 71 75 74, Mark Murless (Rsa) 71 76 69 73, Richard
Sterne (Rsa) 74 71 71 73, Barry Lane 72 70 74 73, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 72 75
72, Paul McGinley 74 71 72 72, Roger Chapman 71 72 71 75, Alessandro Tadini
(Ita) 67 72 73 77
290 Nick Dougherty 68 74 73 75, Simon Dyson 69 73 73 75, Darren Fichardt (Rsa)
71 73 72 74
291 Alastair Forsyth 73 74 68 76, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 74 66 75 76, Terry
Pilkadaris (Aus) 74 65 76 76, Ian Poulter 71 73 72 75, Mark Roe 70 74 72 75,
David Park 70 72 74 75, Andrew Coltart 70 76 71 74, Phillip Archer 70 73 71 77,
Richard Green (Aus) 70 71 70 80
293 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 70 75 71 77, Markus Brier (Aut) 72 70 75 76
294 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 70 77 77, James Kingston (USA) 70 75 70 79
300 Eduardo Romero (Arg) 69 74 74 83
Leading teams:
259 Henrik Stenson and Rurik Gobel 67 64 62 66
262 Warren Abery and Chad Morse 63 65 70 64, Rich Beem and John Dyson 62 65 70
65, Kenneth Ferrie and Jonathan Edwards 64 65 60 73
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