Colin Montgomerie has played hundreds, if not thousands, of rounds at Royal
Troon but none like the next two.
In the most traumatic year of his life and without a top 10 finish in any
Major since 1999, Montgomerie is chasing his ultimate ambition - an Open
championship title on his home course.
While Surrey's Paul Casey, joint first-round leader with France's Thomas
Levet, crashed to a 77 and returned to the role of youngster with a lot of
promise for the future, the 41-year-old Scot took a giant step towards proving
his best is not in the past, but just around the corner.
Inspired by the support of his home fans, all fully aware of the break-up of
his marriage, and forgetting the fact that his world ranking - 71st - is at a
13-year low, Montgomerie added a second-successive two-under-par 69.
But it ended on a slightly worrying note when he missed a three-footer for a
three-putt bogey which dropped him into a tie for fifth rather than a share of
third with England's Barry Lane and South Korean KJ Choi. And he then declined
the invitation to give a full-scale press conference.
Leading at seven under is Skip Kendall, a 39-year-old American without a
single US Tour win to his name. Not that that is a barrier to winning - Ben
Curtis did it last year.
Kendall's main claim to fame is that, like President Bush, he has had a mishap
with a bagel. At last year's Memorial Tournament in Ohio he was slicing one and
cut off part of his left index finger.
In two previous Open appearances he had never shot lower than 73, but this
week he too has found inspiration and with a 66 he moved one ahead of Levet.
But it was Montgomerie who attracted the biggest gallery and it is
Montgomerie, of course, whose position in the event will probably cause roads to
the Ayrshire course to be jammed over the weekend.
This is not the time to get over-excited, however. Two years ago at Muirfield
the seven-time European number one fired a second-round 64 and stood two off the
lead. He followed it with an 84.
But maybe there is something written in the stars about the 2004 championship.
Montgomerie did not even have a place in it until he came through a play-off in
the qualifying tournament at Sunningdale two weeks ago.
He described it as "the first decent thing that has happened to me in a while
- a very important day in my life".
Three behind at the start of play, he instantly put two birdies on his card
(while playing partner Thomas Bjorn was starting double bogey, triple bogey) and
after three-putting the next came back with another by getting up and down from
a greenside bunker at the long fourth.
There was another dropped shot at the difficult ninth, but helped by the fact
that the wind was nowhere near as strong for the later starters he birdied the
15th and then almost holed his chip for eagle from over the back of the green at
the 542-yard 16th.
Levet, not in the championship himself until he won the Barclays Scottish Open
on Sunday, continued to ride the crest of a wave when he set off again.
But there were some anxious moments for the 35-year-old right at the start of
his round after an incident which could lead to him being called the "ice cream
champion" just like Seve Ballesteros was called the "car park champion" 25
years ago.
Japanese tour official Andy Yamanaki, the official walking with Levet's group,
found himself a busy man all of a sudden.
Not only did Levet pull his opening tee shot into the crowd and close to an
ice cream stand, Australian Matthew Goggin was even wilder, hooking his drive
round the edge of one of the grandstands on the adjoining 18th hole.
First Yamanaki supervised Levet's free drop, but while he then turned his
attention to Goggin marshals took down the spectator railing in front of Levet's
ball.
The barrier is deemed an immovable obstruction and should not have moved, but
when Royal and Ancient rules secretary David Rickman was called it was agreed
that in the general confusion Levet had not been responsible for or played any
part in what happened.
If he had been, it would have been a two-stroke penalty.
Levet got out of the hole with a par, birdied two of the next three and then
parred his way round to the 431-yard 12th, where he missed the green and failed
first time to negotiate the slope in front of him.
As he was doing that Kendall, one of the US Tour players who did turn up for
the qualifying event in Washington a fortnight ago, was eagling the 16th and
setting the target.
Bjorn, who lost last year from three ahead with four to play, had another
triple bogey on the last for a 79 and missed the cut.
Curtis, the man to capitalise on the Dane's horror finish 12 months ago, was
another halfway casualty, as were Europe's top two players Padraig Harrington
and Sergio Garcia.
Both needed to birdie the last to survive, but Harrington bogeyed it and
Garcia double-bogeyed it.
The five favourites this week are still around, though.
World number two Ernie Els, who needed five holes of a play-off to beat Levet
and win the title two years ago, stands four under along with world number three
Vijay Singh. Masters champion Phil Mickelson and US Open champion Retief Goosen
are only one further back and world number one Tiger Woods is one under.
As for Casey, he was philosophical after a round which included double bogeys
at the third and 13th and four bogeys.
And he did have the pleasure of witnessing a sparkling 66, the joint low round
of the day with Kendall's, from Mickelson.
Collated Scores and totals in the second round of the 133rd Open Golf Championship, Royal Troon GC, Troon, Scotland (Gbr & Irl unless stated, (x)
denotes amateur, Par 71)
135 Skip Kendall (USA) 69 66
136 Thomas Levet (Fra) 66 70
137 Barry Lane 69 68, K.J. Choi (Kor) 68 69
138 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 67 71, Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 70, Todd Hamilton (USA)
71 67, Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 69, Colin Montgomerie 69 69
139 Mike Weir (Can) 71 68, Kenny Perry (USA) 69 70, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69 70,
Phil Mickelson (USA) 73 66, Scott Verplank (USA) 69 70
140 Rodney Pampling (Aus) 72 68, Kim Felton (Aus) 73 67
141 Gary Emerson 70 71, Darren Clarke 69 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 73 68, Tiger
Woods (USA) 70 71, Gary Evans 68 73, Davis Love III (USA) 72 69, Stuart Appleby
(Aus) 71 70
142 David Toms (USA) 71 71, Marten Olander (Swe) 68 74, Steve Lowery (USA) 69
73, Alastair Forsyth 68 74, Brad Faxon (USA) 74 68, Rich Beem (USA) 69 73, Shaun
Micheel (USA) 70 72, Nick Price (Zim) 71 71, Chris DiMarco (USA) 71 71, Justin
Leonard (USA) 70 72, Kenneth Ferrie 68 74, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 69 73, Paul
Bradshaw 75 67
143 Ian Poulter 71 72, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 72, (x) Stuart Wilson 68 75,
Lee Westwood 72 71, Mark Foster 71 72, Tjaart Van Der Walt (Rsa) 70 73, Hunter
Mahan (USA) 74 69, Sandy Lyle 70 73, Andrew Oldcorn 73 70, Shigeki Maruyama
(Jpn) 71 72, Paul Casey 66 77, Takashi Kamiyama (Jpn) 70 73, Trevor Immelman
(Rsa) 69 74, Stewart Cink (USA) 72 71, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 73 70, Bo Van
Pelt (USA) 72 71
144 Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 70 74, Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn) 73 71, Raphael
Jacquelin (Fra) 72 72, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 70 74, Bob Tway (USA) 76 68,
Christian Cevaer (Fra) 70 74
145 Jerry Kelly (USA) 75 70, Mark O'Meara (USA) 71 74, Steve Flesh (USA) 75
70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 74 71, Mark Calcavecchia (USA) 72 73, Paul
McGinley 69 76, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 68 77, James Kingston (Rsa) 73 72, Charles
Howell III (USA) 75 70, Paul Broadhurst 71 74, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 74, Bob
Estes (USA) 73 72, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 73 72, Paul Wesselingh 73 72, Sean
Whiffin 73 72
The following players failed to make the cut:
146 S.K. Ho (Kor) 72 74, Chad Campbell (USA) 72 74, Jay Haas (USA) 70 76, Tim
Clark (Rsa) 73 73, Scott Barr (Aus) 70 76, Jim Furyk (USA) 73 73, Fredrik
Jacobson (Swe) 75 71, Luke Donald 75 71, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 68 78, Euan Little
74 72, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 73 73
147 Peter Lonard (Aus) 76 71, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 73 74, Robert Allenby (Aus)
70 77, Jonathan Cheetham 72 75, Jean Francois Remesy (Fra) 74 73, Sven Struver
(Ger) 74 73, (x) Lloyd Campbell 73 74, Grant Muller (Rsa) 73 74, Peter O'Malley
(Aus) 77 70, Craig Parry (Aus) 76 71, Brendan Jones (Aus) 71 76, Chris Riley
(USA) 72 75, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 75 72, Padraig Harrington 76 71, (x) Steven
Tiley 71 76, Glen Day (USA) 74 73, Barry Hume 72 75
148 John Huston (USA) 75 73, John Daly (USA) 70 78, Phillip Price 75 73, Arjun
Atwal (Ind) 74 74, Tim Herron (USA) 72 76, Daniel Sugrue 74 74, Ben Willman 72
76, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 74 74, (x) Nick Flanagan (Aus) 72 76, Sergio Garcia
(Spa) 75 73
149 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 74 75, Miles Tunnicliff 74 75, Brian Davis 72 77,
Greg Norman (Aus) 73 76, Spike McRoy (USA) 71 78, Ben Curtis (USA) 75 74,
Cameron Beckman (USA) 75 74, Zach Johnson (USA) 73 76, Stephen Ames (Can) 74 75
150 Matthew Hazleden 79 71, Anders Hansen (Den) 76 74, Simon Wakefield 73 77,
Richard Green (Aus) 74 76, Jonathan Kaye (USA) 74 76, Hidemasa Hoshino (Jpn) 76
74
151 Simon Dyson 75 76, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 78 73, Tom Lehman (USA) 73 78,
Craig Perks (Nzl) 74 77, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 74 77, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 71 80
152 Eduardo Romero (Arg) 77 75, (x) Brian McElhinney 76 76, Scott Drummond 73
79, Graeme McDowell 79 73
153 Nick Faldo 76 77, David Griffiths 75 78, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 79, Jimmy
Green (USA) 78 75
154 David Howell 78 76, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 77 77, Franck Lickliter II
(USA) 77 77, Dinesh Chand (Fij) 80 74
155 Paul Lawrie 78 77
156 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 74 82, Andrew Willey 80 76
157 Ian Spencer 79 78, Adam Le Vesconte (Aus) 77 80
158 Andrew Buckle 76 82
159 Yoshinobu Tsukada (Jpn) 79 80
160 Tom Weiskopf (USA) 80 80
161 Brett Taylor 86 75
163 Neil Evans 85 78
164 Lewis Atkinson 79 85, Anthony Millar 78 86
THE OPEN NEWS
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
